Agreement reached with US states in social media addiction case; Meta to pay $18bn
Meta will stop sending push notifications during school hours on weekdays and will introduce ‘robust’ age verification measures and ‘age-appropriate’ content controls to prevent bullying and harmful material relating to eating disorders and self-harm
Meta and a coalition of 52 US attorneys general have reached a settlement in the case brought by 29 US states concerning children’s addiction to the group’s social media platforms, a case that many had already described as historic in recent days.
According to the prosecution, the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg, which has already lost two court cases on the same grounds, is alleged to have provided misleading information regarding the extent of the harm that apps such as Facebook and Instagram cause to teenagers’ mental health. The settlement requires Meta to pay $18 billion and to make changes to the way its platforms operate, which are used daily by over 3.5 billion people.
These include daily time limits on the use of the company’s apps, restrictions on teenagers using these apps at night, and stricter age verification measures to prevent minors from accessing them.
California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey were among the 29 states that took the tech giant to court in 2023. The settlement now brings an end to the trial, which began last week in Oakland and was due to see CEO Mark Zuckerberg testify before a jury in a federal court in California.
No more push notifications during school hours
Meta will remove push notifications during school hours on weekdays and introduce ‘robust’ age verification measures and ‘age-appropriate’ content controls to prevent bullying and harmful material relating to eating disorders and self-harm. There will be more effective and intuitive parental controls, as well as limits on social comparison features such as ‘like’ counts. The federal lawsuit stemmed from an investigation conducted by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys-general from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. Since then, Meta has added a range of safety features to Instagram, including separate accounts for teenagers with enhanced messaging and privacy protections, as well as content restrictions. However, child safety experts, along with some former Meta employees, consider these measures to be insufficient.
