Meta settles landmark child safety lawsuit for $17 bln, agrees to sweeping teen protections

Meta and a coalition of state attorneys general settled a federal case centered on teen social media addiction on August 26. The agreement marks the most significant overhaul of Meta's platforms for teen users to date.

Settlement Terms

As part of the settlement, Meta agreed to:

• Pay up to $17 billion over 10 years
• Implement sweeping product changes for users aged 13–17
• Introduce stricter age verification requirements

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who led the trial, told CNBC: "It's the highest amount of money ever paid in a case like this. And $17 billion can do a lot of good to prevent and remediate mental health harms for kids."

Product Changes for Teens

Meta must implement a range of default protections for teen users, including:

• A two-hour default limit for time spent on its apps
• Blocking app access between midnight and 6 a.m.
• Muting notifications during school hours
• Hiding likes on posts
• Disabling cosmetic filters
• Giving users the option to control autoplay of videos
• Allowing users to opt for a non-algorithmic feed

Timeline for Rollout

Meta stated it will roll out many of the default protections within the next six months. However, introducing age assurances — stricter age verification to keep children off platforms and accurately identify teens who have lied about their age — will take up to a year.

To address this challenge, Meta is building a new prediction model that analyzes data such as:

• Who users are connected to
• Who they follow and who follows them
• Interactions like "happy birthday" greetings

Age verification — particularly without facial recognition, which Meta does not use — remains notoriously difficult. This has sparked debate between Meta and app store owners Apple and Google over which entity should bear responsibility. Meta has also been testing age-gating technology in Australia to comply with laws banning social media for children under 16, though teens have found workarounds.

A Call to Competitors

After years of denying that its products negatively impacted children, Meta is now positioning itself as a leader in child safety and is calling on rivals YouTube and Snap to follow suit.

Meta will pay $5.3 billion of its $17 billion settlement only if TikTok and YouTube agree to pay the same amount and also set default limits of one hour on their apps — a limit Meta said it would then adopt. TikTok and YouTube have not responded to Meta or to CNBC's request for comment.

Criticism and Ongoing Legal Challenges

Not everyone is satisfied with the settlement, which represents only a fraction of the $200 billion that state attorneys general originally pursued.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who did not participate in the settlement and is pursuing separate litigation against Meta, expressed frustration with the temporary nature of the commitments.

"Child protection is not a short-term, temporary goal. They violated Florida law, and our law is not temporary, it's permanent. These changes need to be permanent," Uthmeier told CNBC.

Meta still faces other lawsuits, as do other social media companies. Questions remain about how much the teen-focused changes will affect Meta's bottom line. The company has stated that teens generate less than 1% of its revenue, and eMarketer reports that teens spend less time on Instagram and Facebook than on TikTok and YouTube.

Watch Now VIDEO | 9:13 Meta settled its child safety lawsuit. Now comes the hard part. TechCheck