Meta Settles Teen Addiction Lawsuits for Up to $23.6 Billion

Meta Platforms reached a landmark settlement with a coalition of 47 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and various territories to resolve allegations that it intentionally designed Facebook and Instagram to addict children. The company will pay between $17.1 billion and $23.6 billion over the next decade. A baseline of $12.7 billion is guaranteed, with an additional $5.3 billion contingent on whether competitors TikTok, YouTube, and Snap Inc. adopt similar safety protections and enter their own settlements.

As part of the agreement, Meta must implement strict default safety measures for users under 18, including a two-hour daily usage limit, a midnight-to-6 a.m. lockout, and suppressed notifications during school hours. The company will also remove like counts and extreme beauty filters while offering non-personalized chronological feeds. To ensure compliance, Meta will strengthen age-verification technology subject to outside audits.

While Meta characterized the deal as a partnership to set a new industry standard, critics argue the settlement is insufficient because it fails to disable addictive recommendation algorithms by default. Separately, Meta agreed to pay nearly $500 million to 46 states and two territories to resolve claims regarding the 2016 Cambridge Analytica data leak, though New Mexico and Washington, DC, continue to pursue litigation.