Meta Agrees to Pay Up to $18bn to Settle Claims Its Platforms Harm Children

Meta has agreed to pay up to $18bn (£13.3bn) to settle claims brought by US states that Facebook and Instagram harmed children, in what would be the company’s largest payment over child safety litigation.

The settlement covers 48 states, as well as the District of Columbia and three US territories. It still requires approval from a judge in California.

As part of the agreement, Meta will introduce a series of measures designed to give parents greater control over how children use its platforms.

The company has denied wrongdoing and said the settlement payment will be made in annual instalments over 10 years.

“This is a major moment to clean up an industry that has been hurting our kids,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said.

The original lawsuit was filed in 2023 by 29 states, which accused Meta of violating federal and state child privacy laws and using features designed to keep young users engaged on its platforms.

One state not included in the settlement is New Mexico. Last month, a federal judge there ruled that Meta’s conduct constituted a “public nuisance”, comparing the harm to that associated with air pollution, and ordered the company to pay almost $1bn in combined fines.

Under the new settlement, Meta will introduce a number of restrictions for teenage users.

A “night mode” feature, which blocks notifications between midnight and 06:00, will be switched on by default. Parents or guardians will be able to control whether the setting can be disabled.

Teenagers will also face a default two-hour daily limit across Instagram and Facebook. The limit can only be disabled with parental permission.

Other measures include:

• Hiding “likes” on teenagers’ profiles and on posts they interact with.
• Introducing “school mode”, which will mute notifications between 08:00 and 15:00 on school days.
• Sending prompts after 15 minutes of continuous use, followed by notifications at 60 and 90 minutes of cumulative use.
• Allowing teenagers to choose a feed that is not driven by an algorithm.
• Giving users the option to disable video and content autoplay.
• Removing access to extreme make-up filters for teenage users.

Meta’s chief legal officer, C J Mahoney, said the agreement would give parents greater control over how their children access the company’s platforms.

The daily usage limit could become even stricter if other major social media companies agree to similar restrictions. Under the settlement, the limit would fall to one hour a day if platforms including TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube introduce new restrictions for young users.