{"id":70725,"date":"2026-08-26T16:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T16:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/70725\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T16:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T16:16:10","slug":"meta-reaches-17-billion-settlement-with-states-over-teen-social-media-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/70725\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta reaches $17 billion settlement with states over teen social media addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Meta<\/a> has agreed to pay $17 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms to end a landmark trial<\/a> over teen social media addiction and settle claims filed by 47 states, state attorneys general announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The settlement resolves a pivotal legal case years in the making that sought to hold the tech giant accountable for the role its platforms played in undermining children\u2019s mental health. The effort targeted features designed to hook young people\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, Meta intentionally deceived the public about the addictive and harmful design features that have wreaked havoc on youth mental health,\u201d Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said. The settlement \u201cwill put an end to these dangerous practices and deliver meaningful relief that will protect children from online harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the money would be paid out over 10 years, with the state getting at least $1.5 billion if the settlement is approved by the court. New Jersey expects to receive at least $525 million. Massachusetts said it was in line for at least $366 million. Virginia\u2019s share is worth $353 million.<\/p>\n

Meta urges rivals to adopt similar safety measures<\/p>\n

Meta said in a blog post that it was \u201cbuilding on our longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEnsuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta,\u201d the company said. \u201cWe want to get this right for parents and teens, and that\u2019s why we partnered with state attorneys general to set a new industry standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company urged rivals TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar safety measures.<\/p>\n

The $17 billion settlement is a fraction of Meta\u2019s 2025 revenue of $201 billion.<\/p>\n

The agreement cuts short an ongoing court case involving California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, which were among 29 states that sued Meta<\/a> in 2023. CEO Mark Zuckerberg was among those expected to take the stand<\/a> before a jury in federal court in California.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit accused Meta of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features that addict children<\/a> to its platforms and hiding them from the public. The case also argued that Meta violated federal laws by routinely collecting data on children under 13 without their parents\u2019 consent.<\/p>\n

The trial kicked off last week<\/a> in Oakland, California, with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers overseeing the proceedings. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, began his testimony late Tuesday and defended Meta\u2019s record and progress on child safety and privacy.<\/p>\n

The cases in other states had been expected to go to trial later. In addition, nine attorneys general filed lawsuits in their respective states.<\/p>\n

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New features to include time limits and curbs on push notifications<\/p>\n

Under the proposed settlement, Meta agreed to adopt a series of safety features, including a \u201chard cap\u201d on daily time limits and pauses for children using Instagram and Facebook.<\/p>\n

It will eliminate push notifications during weekday school hours and bring in \u201crobust\u201d age-assurance measures and \u201cage-appropriate\u201d content controls to prevent bullying and harmful material about eating disorders and self-harm.<\/p>\n

There will be stronger and more user-friendly parental controls and limits on social comparison features such as \u201clike\u201d counts.<\/p>\n

An independent auditor will assess how Meta is implementing the safety features and how effective they are. <\/p>\n

Meta put the settlement at $18 billion, a figure that apparently includes a large award for Texas.<\/p>\n

The money is to be paid out annually over 10 years, to fund youth online safety initiatives. However, the company said 30% of that amount \u2014 about $5.3 billion \u2014 will only be released to states if rivals YouTube and TikTok meet two conditions: implementing similar safety features, including a one-hour daily time limit, a nighttime block and age-assurance measures; and paying the same amount, split between the two companies.<\/p>\n

Neither YouTube owner Google nor TikTok responded immediately to requests for comments.<\/p>\n

Investigation was led by bipartisan coalition<\/p>\n

The federal lawsuit was the result of an investigation led by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Vermont. It followed newspaper reports, first by The Wall Street Journal<\/a> in 2021, that found that the company knew about the harm Instagram can cause teenagers \u2014 especially teen girls \u2014 when it comes to mental health and body image issues.<\/p>\n

Meta has since added a host of safety features<\/a> to Instagram, including separate accounts for teenagers with stronger protections around messaging and privacy, along with content restrictions. <\/p>\n

But child safety experts, along with some former Meta employees<\/a>, have long contended that the features are little more than window dressing. <\/p>\n

Arturo B\u00e9jar<\/a>, a former Meta engineering director, said during his testimony last week that Meta consistently prioritized profits over safety in designing its products, focusing on how often and for how long people used them, even if it was detrimental to their mental well-being.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you step away from the product, they are not going to make any money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While the four states in the Oakland trial did not officially say how much they had been seeking, Meta said in a court filing that financial penalties in the case could amount to as much as $1.4 trillion \u2014 a figure legal experts said was unlikely, if not impossible. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Chan reported from London. Associated Press Writer Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Meta has agreed to pay $17 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7031,61,36564,112,55,66,56,50,8,277,15585,927,169,2635,4013,928,5164,1131,9,63,1702,198,199,7373,7,2636,54,13037],"class_list":["post-70725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-adam-mosseri","tag-ap-top-news","tag-arturo-bjar","tag-business","tag-california","tag-children","tag-courts","tag-general-news","tag-headlines","tag-inc","tag-jay-jones","tag-juries","tag-lawsuits","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-mental-health","tag-meta-platforms","tag-new-jersey","tag-news","tag-privacy","tag-rob-bonta","tag-social-media","tag-technology","tag-teens","tag-top-stories","tag-trials","tag-u-s-news","tag-yvonne-gonzalez-rogers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/117162710640775502","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}