Meta Settles Youth Addiction Lawsuits for Up to $18 Billion

Following a federal trial in Oakland, Meta Platforms Inc. agreed to a landmark settlement of up to $18 billion to resolve lawsuits brought by a bipartisan coalition of 48 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and several territories. The litigation alleged that Meta designed Facebook and Instagram with addictive features—such as infinite scroll and recommendation algorithms—that harmed the mental health of children and teenagers while misleading the public about these risks.

Under the agreement, Meta will pay a baseline of approximately $12.7 billion over ten years. An additional $5.3 billion is contingent upon competitors, including TikTok and Google's YouTube, adopting similar safety frameworks and making matching payments. Meta must implement sweeping product changes for users under 18, including a default two-hour daily time limit, a "Night Mode" blocking access from midnight to 6 a.m., and a "School Mode" that mutes notifications during school hours. The company will also hide like counts by default, ban extreme beauty filters, and strengthen age-verification technology using AI and third-party tools.

While Meta denies any wrongdoing, the settlement avoids a potential $1.4 trillion liability and spares CEO Mark Zuckerberg from testifying. Most states joined the pact, but Florida rejected the terms as insufficient, and New Mexico remained separate following a prior legal victory. International regulators in the United Kingdom and the European Commission have since demanded that Meta extend these same protections to users outside the United States. The settlement also resolves separate claims regarding the 2016 Cambridge Analytica data leak, with nearly $500 million allocated to participating jurisdictions.