{"id":1025838,"date":"2026-08-26T19:08:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1025838\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T19:08:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:08:21","slug":"meta-reaches-18-billion-settlement-over-teen-social-media-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1025838\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta reaches $18 billion settlement over teen social media addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Meta<\/a> agreed Wednesday to pay up to $18 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms as part of a landmark legal settlement that ended a trial<\/a> over teen social media addiction<\/a> and settled claims filed by nearly every state.<\/p>\n

The settlement resolved a pivotal case<\/a> 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

The agreement \u201cinstitutes real change, real transparency, real protections for children and teens across the country,\u201d California Attorney General Rob Bonta said.<\/p>\n

If approved by the court, the deal will stop an avalanche of litigation by states against Meta, although the company still faces lawsuits from individuals and school districts throughout the U.S. For the states, the settlement delivers money for mental-health programs for kids, including after-school or summer activities and digital literacy counselors.<\/p>\n

Advocates cheered the new protections, including default time limits and the disabling of features such as \u201clike\u201d counts.<\/p>\n

But \u201cwe cannot truly protect all children and teens until these protections are required on every platform and are permanent \u2014 that\u2019s something only Congress can do,\u201d said Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project.<\/p>\n

The settlement will be paid out over 10 years. California will get the largest sum of at least $1.5 billion, but several other states will still collect hundreds of millions of dollars each over the decade.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"California<\/p>\n

California Attorney General Rob Bonta discusses a lawsuit against Meta during a press conference on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Oakland, Calif. At right is New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport. (AP Photo\/Noah Berger)<\/p>\n

California Attorney General Rob Bonta discusses a lawsuit against Meta during a press conference on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Oakland, Calif. At right is New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport. (AP Photo\/Noah Berger)<\/p>\n

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The settlement \u201cwill put an end to these dangerous practices and deliver meaningful relief that will protect children from online harm,\u201d Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said.<\/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

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

The $18 billion settlement is a fraction of Meta\u2019s 2025 revenue<\/a> of $201 billion. Meta shares were up about 1.5% by midday Wednesday, hours after the deal was announced.<\/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. The federal trial kicked off last week<\/a> in Oakland, California, where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had been among the witnesses expected to take the stand<\/a>.<\/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 cases in other states had been expected to go to trial later, but are now resolved. The settlement covers 48 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and some U.S. territories. The only two states to be excluded are New Mexico, which went to trial<\/a> in its case against Meta and won earlier this year, and Florida, where the attorney general said the settlement was not tough enough on Meta.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Adam<\/p>\n

Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, arrives in court to testify in a landmark social media case that seeks to hold tech companies responsible for harms to children, in Los Angeles, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo\/Damian Dovarganes, File)<\/p>\n

Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, arrives in court to testify in a landmark social media case that seeks to hold tech companies responsible for harms to children, in Los Angeles, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo\/Damian Dovarganes, File)<\/p>\n

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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote on X that the \u201cpayouts are peanuts compared to the profound harms Meta\u2019s profit-driven addictive features inflicted on kids.\u201d He wrote in a separate post that his team \u201cwill hold them accountable in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 two-hour daily time limits that can only be disabled with a parent\u2019s permission and pauses for children using Instagram and Facebook.<\/p>\n

The company 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

The company said 30% of the settlement amount \u2014 about $5.3 billion \u2014 will be released to states only 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

<\/p>\n

\"Lennon<\/p>\n

Lennon Torres of Heat Initiative holds a banner with names of young people who advocates say died as a result of social media outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo\/Noah Berger)<\/p>\n

Lennon Torres of Heat Initiative holds a banner with names of young people who advocates say died as a result of social media outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo\/Noah Berger)<\/p>\n

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Meta officials declined to comment on whether they had conversations with their competitors about those conditions, but said they intentionally designed the agreement with the states to incentivize the rest of the industry to follow suit.<\/p>\n

Some of the safety measures Meta will implement, like disabling cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters, made sense regardless of whether competing platforms do the same, Meta said. Others, like its overnight block, will function better if they are established across the board, the company said.<\/p>\n

If industry peers sign on to the agreement, Meta will implement stronger defaults for teens\u2019 daily time limit and the length of time for its \u201cnight mode.\u201d<\/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 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 advocates and experts, along with some former Meta employees<\/a>, have long contended that the features are little more than window dressing.<\/p>\n

Victoria Hinks, mother of Alexandra \u201cOwl\u201d Hinks, who died by suicide at age 16, said she was satisfied with the terms of the settlement \u201cas long as they enforce it properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like today finally something was done,\u201d she said Wednesday outside the Oakland courthouse where the trial was held. \u201cI feel like justice is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Chan reported from London. Associated Press writers Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia, Wyatte Grantham-Philips in Chicago and Kaitlyn Huamani in Los Angeles contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Meta agreed Wednesday to pay up to $18 billion and add stronger child-safety measures…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1025839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[3881,64,276,245,723,57,51,59,14521,143996,336,362,7798,9337,517,7062,401,50,13211,250613,345,158,3981,52,61,282128],"class_list":["post-1025838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ap-top-news","tag-business","tag-california","tag-children","tag-florida","tag-general-news","tag-headlines","tag-inc","tag-james-uthmeier","tag-jay-jones","tag-lawsuits","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-medical-technology","tag-mental-health","tag-meta-platforms","tag-new-jersey","tag-news","tag-rob-bonta","tag-sacha-haworth","tag-social-media","tag-technology","tag-teens","tag-top-stories","tag-u-s-news","tag-victoria-hinks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117163389584985362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1025838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1025839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1025838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1025838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1025838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}