Meta settles for ‘peanuts,’ promises 47 states more protections for minors

Social media giant Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook and Instagram, agreed to implement substantial new app protections for minors and pay more than $17 billion in a legal settlement with 47 states, Washington D.C., and three territories, the company announced Wednesday.

“The settlement addresses Meta’s role in an industry-wide problem, and now the rest of Big Tech needs to catch up to Meta and implement similar protections,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a state press release. “We’re going to make sure they do.”

The settlement closes a federal lawsuit brought by nearly every state, claiming Meta intentionally designed its apps to be addictive and “misled the public” about their safety, despite knowing the potential mental health harms especially to minors, according to the states suing.

Meta called the agreement “historic” in a post on X, saying it “provides sweeping new protections empowering parents and setting the standard for the industry.”

The new safeguards for minors will implement daily time limits of two hours and mandatory pauses at 15, 60 and 90 minutes to interrupt the continuous scroll feature. Meta will also establish “nighttime blocks” from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. and silence notifications during school hours from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Notably, the settlement does not restrict Meta from personalized recommendations or advertising and does not address body-image content researchers tied to harm in young girls, according to Reuters. The company, however, will update age verification measures, parental controls and age-appropriate content filters to protect children from other harms, according to the press releases.

“As a mother, I know how critical it is to shield kids from predators, addictive material, and content that harms their mental health,” Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said in a statement. “Every minor should be secure the moment they log on, and we will continue working toward a digital environment where children are truly protected, no matter where they live or which platform they use.”

Missouri expects to receive between $100 and $150 million from the settlement.

The three states excluded from the settlement – Florida, New Mexico and Texas – are all involved in their own separate lawsuits against Meta and other social media companies.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier criticized the settlement as insufficient in comparison to the decade of often life-long harms against children entrapped on Meta’s apps.

“The payouts are peanuts compared to the profound harms Meta’s profit-driven addictive features inflicted on kids, and a slap on the wrist for a trillion-dollar corp that’ll pay more to lawyers than to the states,” he said in a post on X. “We’ll see them at trial.”

The total sum, $17.1 billion, is approximately one month of revenue and three to four months of profit for Meta, according to Reuters. The company will pay $12 billion in increments for the next decade and the remaining $5.1 billion depends on whether Snap (the owner of Snapchat), TikTok and YouTube also agree to financial payments and product updates in a settlement with the states, according to The New York Times. 

“Trying to wipe out a decade of harm to the nation’s youth with one month’s cash flow is an insult,” Uthmeier said in a separate post. “Corporations like Meta will never learn a lesson if they don’t incur real costs for breaking the law.”

Originally, Meta said four of the suing states – California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey – were demanding $200 billion in ‌penalties, according to the Times.

Also on Wednesday, Texas, one of the three states not in the agreement, announced its own settlement with Meta of more than $1 billion.

“It is my mission to fundamentally change and strengthen the standards for child safety online, and this settlement is a major step forward in the fight to ensure our kids are protected online,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.

The funds will aid “remediation efforts,” including mental health and crisis resources, after-school programs and Texas school grants, according to the press release. Additionally, Meta will roll out stricter safeguards similar to those specified for the other 47 states.

Texas’ case is expected to go to trial against TikTok in the fall of 2026 alleging similar harms on minors.

Meta, however, is encouraging other social media companies to follow its lead.

“Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution,” Meta Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said in a statement Wednesday. “We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework, right away. As a parent, I’m proud of both the work Meta has done to protect kids historically, and of this new groundbreaking agreement. But its success depends on all other social media platforms following Meta’s lead.”