Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to pay up to $16.68 billion to settle a major legal battle brought by US states over allegations that its social media platforms were deliberately designed to keep children and teenagers engaged, improperly collected minors’ data and contributed to harm among young users.
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The agreement was reached during a federal trial in California and brings an end to one of the most closely watched cases examining the impact of social media platforms on children.
Meta did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement and has consistently denied allegations that Facebook and Instagram were deliberately designed to harm or addict young users.
Under the agreement, the technology company will also be required to introduce significant changes to the way teenage users access Facebook and Instagram in the United States.
The measures include default daily usage limits, nighttime restrictions, limits during school hours, stronger parental controls and more robust age-verification mechanisms intended to prevent underage users from accessing inappropriate content.
The states had accused Meta of using Facebook and Instagram in ways designed to “entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens,” while allegedly ignoring the effect of the platforms on the mental and physical wellbeing of young people.
The litigation included consumer-protection claims brought by states including California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, alongside allegations by 29 states that Meta violated the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, COPPA.
Authorities alleged that Meta collected personal information from users it knew were children without properly notifying or obtaining consent from their parents.
The states also alleged that children’s data was used in the development and training of machine-learning and generative artificial intelligence systems.
Meta denied those allegations and maintained that it had invested substantially in tools and policies designed to protect children and teenagers using its platforms.
The company had also argued that it could not have misled consumers by describing its products as non-addictive because “social media addiction” is not formally recognised as a psychiatric condition.
Before the trial, Meta said four states were initially seeking penalties that could have reached as high as $1.4 trillion. The states later indicated that the potential figure was closer to $200 billion, in addition to seeking court orders requiring substantial changes to how Meta’s platforms operate.
The eventual agreement dramatically reduces that potential exposure while imposing significant youth-safety obligations on the technology company.
Meta said in a statement that it had reached an agreement with a bipartisan group of 52 attorneys general representing US states, territories and the District of Columbia, building on measures the company said it had already introduced to give parents more control and improve protections for teenagers.
While court documents put the maximum settlement payment at $16.68 billion, Meta separately described the broader financial commitment as approximately $18 billion, saying payments would be made in annual instalments over a 10-year period and could be used by states for youth online-safety initiatives and other priorities.
The difference between the two figures appears to reflect the way the settlement obligations were described in the respective court documents and Meta’s statement.
District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb hailed the agreement as a “monumental public health victory,” saying the safety changes Meta would be required to introduce could fundamentally alter how children and teenagers use Instagram and Facebook.
Among the new measures will be restrictions on access during school hours, stronger parental-control tools, nighttime blocks and tighter systems for verifying the ages of younger users.
Meta Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said the measures should become an industry-wide standard rather than apply only to Facebook and Instagram.
According to Mahoney, Meta’s commitments involving time limits, Night Mode and school-hour usage restrictions provide a possible framework for protecting young users, but he argued that other major platforms, including TikTok and YouTube, should adopt comparable safeguards.
The settlement resolves one of Meta’s most significant youth-safety cases but does not end the wider wave of litigation confronting the social media industry.
Meta, Snap, Google parent Alphabet through YouTube, and TikTok parent ByteDance continue to face thousands of lawsuits in federal and state courts alleging that they knowingly designed features that encourage excessive or addictive use among young people.
About 30 states have separately pursued litigation against social media companies over similar allegations concerning the effect of their platforms on children and teenagers.
Meta has also suffered setbacks in other recent youth-safety cases.
In March, a jury ordered the company to pay $375 million in a New Mexico case after finding that it misled consumers concerning the safety of its platforms.
On August 6, a judge separately found that Meta had created a public nuisance and ordered the company to pay another $567 million, alongside requirements to introduce additional protections for younger users.
Also in March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google liable in a case brought by an individual who alleged that the companies’ platforms contributed to depression and anxiety.
The companies were ordered to pay a combined $6 million in damages, although both have indicated that they intend to challenge the decision on appeal.
The latest multibillion-dollar settlement therefore removes one of the largest federal trials from Meta’s immediate legal challenges but leaves the company facing substantial litigation over how Facebook and Instagram affect children.
For US states, the agreement represents both a major financial settlement and an attempt to reshape the design of social media platforms used by younger people.
For Meta, however, the company maintains that settling the case does not amount to an admission that Facebook or Instagram caused the alleged harms, even as it accepts sweeping new obligations governing how teenagers use the platforms.
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