Meta agreed on August 26 to pay up to $16.7 billion over 10 annual installments to resolve claims from a coalition of 29 states that it deliberately engineered Facebook and Instagram to addict young users, according to a court filing that ended a trial in its second week in Oakland, California. The settlement, reported by Reuters and the Associated Press, was co-led by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, New Jersey, and Kentucky.
Settlement Terms
The agreement does not include an admission of liability, and Meta has denied the allegations. It requires approval from U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who said she expects to approve it shortly. California is the largest recipient, receiving $1.5 billion to $2.1 billion, followed by New York with up to $1.13 billion and Illinois with up to $768 million. Compliance will be policed for 10 years by an independent auditor chosen jointly by Meta and the states and paid for by Meta.
Platform Changes
Under the terms, teen accounts on Facebook and Instagram will be automatically locked out between midnight and 6 a.m. local time, capped at two hours of cumulative daily use by default, and subject to muted notifications during school hours under a School Mode setting. Meta will also strengthen age verification, add parental tools, require pauses after 15, 60, and 90 minutes of continuous use, restrict beauty filters and like counts for under-18s, and respond to 90 percent of teen reports on harmful content within six hours.
Industry Implications
Meta called on TikTok and YouTube to adopt the same framework, saying that if they do, the nighttime lockout would widen to 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and the daily limit would drop to 60 minutes per app. The settlement follows testimony in which Instagram head Adam Mosseri acknowledged touting safety tools without disclosing low adoption rates. The agreement does not cover thousands of separate personal injury claims and school district lawsuits Meta still faces, and the European Commission has separately requested similar protections for minors in Europe under the Digital Services Act.
