Meta to add new child safety features

Meta’s $18bn Settlement: What Changes for Teens?

Meta has agreed to significant changes to Facebook and Instagram after settling a landmark US lawsuit in which California and 28 other states accused the company of deliberately designing addictive products that harmed young people. The settlement, which requires court approval, could cost Meta up to $18bn and introduces new protections for teenage users across the US.

The agreement is particularly significant because it is the first time in the US that Meta has been forced to change key features affecting the everyday user experience. Meta continues to deny wrongdoing.

Why was Meta taken to court?

The case began as a jury trial in federal court in Oakland, California. The states alleged that Meta deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram in ways that hooked young people and contributed to mental health issues including anxiety, depression and suicide.

The states also alleged that Meta regularly collected data from children under 13 without parental permission, in violation of federal and state laws. Meta denied all the allegations throughout the proceedings and, under the eventual settlement, continues to deny wrongdoing.

Although the trial had been expected to run for several weeks and involve dozens of witnesses, the proceedings ended after only four days when the settlement was reached.

Former Meta safety engineer and whistleblower Arturo Béjar testified that Meta had adopted what he described as a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to children’s safety. Béjar also alleged that Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was aware of harms associated with Instagram and Facebook while publicly promoting their safety. Zuckerberg had been scheduled as a witness but did not testify before the agreement was reached.

Instagram chief executive Adam Mosseri was also questioned about the uptake of teen safety features. When challenged over Meta not publishing low usage figures for such features, Mosseri responded: “We don’t publish every single stat.”

What will change on Facebook and Instagram?

The settlement requires Meta to establish additional safeguards for teenage users nationwide in the US. According to California attorney general Rob Bonta, these changes include daily time limits, stopping notifications during school hours, blocking access during critical overnight hours and banning plastic surgery filters.

Bonta described the agreement as involving “massive transformations” intended to reduce risks to children and said Meta would implement the changes within months.

The measures matter because the case went beyond questions about parental responsibility or individual choices. At its centre were allegations about how social media products themselves are designed and the extent to which platforms should be responsible for protecting younger users.

That raises an important question: when a digital product is difficult for a young person to put down, how much responsibility should fall on the individual, their parents and the company that designed the platform?

Settlement could cost Meta up to $18bn

The scale of the settlement is substantial. Meta may pay up to $18bn over 10 years, subject to court approval. California is expected to receive between $1.5bn and $2.1bn, while Colorado will receive about $615m.

Colorado attorney general Phil Weiser described the relief obtained through the agreement as going “well beyond what any court has ordered or is likely to order”, adding that protecting children was the focus of the case.

Meta is a company valued at $1.36tn (£1tn). The financial settlement is therefore significant, but the required changes to platform design may ultimately prove just as noteworthy.

Meta calls for an industry-wide response

Meta has argued that changes to Facebook and Instagram alone will not solve the wider issue. Its chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney, said teenagers move between dozens of apps and called on TikTok, Snap and YouTube to implement the same framework immediately.

Mahoney also defended Meta’s previous work on child safety and argued that the agreement’s success depends on other social media platforms following its approach.

The settlement does not end the wider legal battle over social media and alleged addiction. Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap face thousands of similar US lawsuits from families, individuals, school districts and attorneys general.

Meta and YouTube lost the first of these cases to reach trial in February and were ordered to pay $6m to the young woman who brought the case. TikTok and Snap had settled before that trial. Two further lawsuits scheduled for trial during the summer were settled for undisclosed amounts.

Separately, Meta was ordered to pay nearly $1bn to New Mexico following a lawsuit brought by the state’s attorney general concerning child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

A significant moment in the social media debate

The settlement brings renewed attention to the relationship between platform design, compulsive social media use and the protection of younger users.

It also highlights an important distinction: safety tools can only achieve their intended purpose when they meaningfully affect how a platform is experienced. The evidence discussed during the trial included questions about whether young people were actually using existing safety features. The new settlement instead requires interventions including usage limits and restrictions at particular times.

Whether the changes will produce the intended effects remains to be seen. What is clear from the agreement is that the question of how social media platforms are designed for teenagers has moved beyond a debate about voluntary safeguards. In this case, enforceable changes to Facebook and Instagram form part of a settlement worth up to $18bn.

Comment by Allen Carr’s Easyway

At Allen Carr’s Easyway, we have been warning of the dangers of social media addiction for many years and believe the wider significance of this story lies in the increasing scrutiny of potentially addictive digital experiences and how they influence people’s behaviour.

The allegations against Meta were contested, and the settlement expressly includes Meta’s denial of wrongdoing so the allegations made during the case should not be taken as established facts.

At the same time, the safeguards agreed by Meta invite important questions about the role of platform design. Daily usage limits, reduced notifications and overnight restrictions all seek to change the circumstances in which teenagers interact with social media. For parents, young people and anyone concerned about their own relationship with social media, this case provides an opportunity to consider not simply how much time is spent online, but what keeps drawing someone back and why stopping can sometimes feel difficult.

Read more about Allen Carr’s Quit Tech Addiction

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