Meta settles teen addiction case for USD 17 billion, adds child-safety curbs

Meta has agreed to a USD 17 billion settlement with 47 US states over child safety on Facebook and Instagram. The deal could end a landmark addiction trial while imposing stronger safeguards for younger users.Meta has agreed to pay USD 17 billion and introduce stronger child-safety measures on Facebook and Instagram under a major legal settlement that ends a trial over teen social media addiction and resolves claims brought by 47 US states. If approved by the court, the deal would close a years-long case that sought to hold the company responsible for the impact of its platforms on children's mental health.The settlement also brings in new safeguards for younger users, including default daily time limits, limits on features such as like counts, stronger parental controls and measures aimed at reducing bullying and harmful content. The money will go towards programmes for children's mental health, including after-school or summer activities and digital literacy counsellors.Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said, "For years, Meta intentionally deceived the public about the addictive and harmful design features that have wreaked havoc on youth mental health." He said the settlement "will put an end to these dangerous practices and deliver meaningful relief that will protect children from online harm."Advocates welcomed the new protections, including default time limits and the disabling of features such as like counts. But Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project, said, "we cannot truly protect all children and teens until these protections are required on every platform and are permanent - that's something only Congress can do." California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the money would be paid over 10 years, with California getting at least USD 1.5 billion. New Jersey expects at least USD 525 million, Massachusetts said it is set to receive at least USD 366 million, and Virginia's share is worth USD 353 million.Meta said in a blog post that it was "building on our longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens". The company said, "Ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta. We want to get this right for parents and teens, and that's why we partnered with state attorneys general to set a new industry standard." It also urged rivals TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar measures. The USD 17 billion settlement is a fraction of Meta's 2025 revenue of USD 201 billion. The agreement ends an ongoing court case involving California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, which were among 29 states that sued Meta in 2023. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had been expected to testify before a jury in federal court in California.The lawsuit accused Meta of fuelling the youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features that addicted children to its platforms and by hiding those effects from the public. It also alleged that Meta violated federal law by routinely collecting data on children under 13 without parental consent.The trial began last week in Oakland, California, before US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, began testifying late on Tuesday and defended Meta's record and progress on child safety and privacy. Cases in other states were expected to go to trial later, and nine attorneys general had also filed separate lawsuits in their own states.Under the proposed settlement, Meta agreed to introduce a series of safety features, including a hard cap on daily usage and pauses for children using Instagram and Facebook. It will remove push notifications during weekday school hours and introduce robust age-assurance measures and age-appropriate content controls to help block bullying and harmful material related to eating disorders and self-harm. The company will also bring in stronger, more user-friendly parental controls and curb social comparison features such as like counts. An independent auditor will review how Meta implements these measures and how effective they are.Meta, however, put the value of the settlement at USD 18 billion, apparently including a large award for Texas. The company said 30 per cent of that amount, about USD 5.3 billion, will be released to states only if YouTube and TikTok meet two conditions: they must implement similar safety features, including a one-hour daily time limit, a night-time block and age-assurance measures, and they must pay the same amount between them. Neither Google, which owns YouTube, nor TikTok immediately responded to requests for comment.The federal lawsuit followed an investigation led by a bipartisan group of attorneys general from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. It came after reports first published by The Wall Street Journal in 2021 said the company knew about the harm Instagram could cause teenagers, especially teen girls, in relation to mental health and body image.Meta has since introduced several safety features on Instagram, including separate teenage accounts with stronger messaging and privacy protections and tighter content restrictions. But child safety experts and some former Meta employees have argued that the changes do not go far enough. Arturo Bejar, a former Meta engineering director, said in his testimony last week that Meta repeatedly put profits ahead of safety in product design, focusing on how often and how long people used its platforms, even when that harmed their mental well-being. "If you step away from the product, they are not going to make any money," he said.While the four states in the Oakland trial did not formally say how much they were seeking, Meta said in a court filing that financial penalties in the case could reach as much as USD 1.4 trillion, a figure that legal experts described as unlikely. If approved, the settlement would end the states' case against Meta, set new child-safety standards on Facebook and Instagram, and direct billions of dollars towards programmes meant to support children's mental health.With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Aug 27, 2026 00:00 IST