Meta has agreed to a settlement with 52 U.S. state and territory attorneys general over allegations that it designed Facebook and Instagram to keep children engaged and misled the public about the risks, and is now pressing rivals TikTok and YouTube to accept similar restrictions.
The agreement, announced this week, resolves claims that Meta’s platforms contributed to a teen mental health crisis, including anxiety, depression and suicide, by employing addictive design features. Meta did not admit wrongdoing under the terms of the deal, which still requires approval from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Under the settlement, Meta will pay up to $18 billion, though roughly $5.3 billion of that sum is contingent on TikTok and YouTube agreeing to match the payment and adopt equivalent safeguards. The new measures include a two-hour daily usage limit that requires parental approval to override, along with automatic restrictions during nighttime hours.
Meta has published an open letter urging its two largest competitors to “join us in supporting teens,” arguing that child safety measures will be less effective if restricted users simply migrate to other platforms. The company also ran newspaper advertisements over the weekend promoting the same message. Neither TikTok nor YouTube had publicly responded as of Wednesday.
State officials signaled the legal pressure on other platforms will continue. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office intends to keep pursuing litigation against TikTok, YouTube and Snap. California and New York are already parties to a separate 2024 lawsuit against TikTok alleging its design features are addictive to younger users; that case remains ongoing.
Meta and YouTube separately lost a related product-liability trial earlier this year in Los Angeles over claims that autoplay and infinite-scroll features harmed a plaintiff’s mental health, and Meta was ordered in a New Mexico case to pay more than $900 million in penalties for violating state child-safety law.
