Meta has officially ended a landmark legal standoff over social media addiction among children, agreeing to pay some $18 billion over the next ten years and make sweeping changes to how it approaches child safety.
The lawsuit, organized by the attorneys general of 29 US states, alleged that Meta executives like Mark Zuckerberg created a system that abused data collected from minors, while feigning ignorance about the harms their platforms caused.
Though $18 billion is peanuts compared to Meta’s expected $130 billion annual capex, it still represents a significant windfall to be divided amongst the states that brought the suit. Had Meta refused to settle and lost, the company could have faced as much as $200 billion in combined penalties, Reuters reported — suggesting that the social media giant was probably at least somewhat concerned about the possibility of a loss.
But beyond money, the settlement’s required changes to Meta platforms are significant. They include a two-hour daily time limit for minors, “nighttime blocks” restricting kids’ access to Meta feeds after a certain time, school-time access limits, a stronger age-verification system, heftier moderation of children’s content, and limits to its controversial social comparison features.
