SACRAMENTO, California - Meta has reached a tentative $17 billion settlement with nearly all U.S. states that would also see the social media giant make sweeping changes to dramatically restrict minors' access to Instagram and Facebook, the California Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
The pending agreement is a monumental concession without precedent by one of the world's wealthiest and most powerful tech companies. It would end a pivotal trial over claims brought by California and more than two dozen other states that Meta intentionally hooked kids on its platforms, while misleading users about their potential harms. The deal would also resolve claims brought by other states and some U.S. territories in different proceedings.
The impact of the concessions Meta has agreed to make will be limited to the U.S. but nonetheless far-reaching, as the company is set to implement protections that online safety advocates have been trying to extract from Congress for years. Instagram and Facebook boast hundreds of millions of American users, many of whom are the teens and parents who would experience the new child safety features most directly.
According to Bonta's office, the settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge, demands that Meta build guardrails into its platforms to limit minors' access to two hours each day and block them entirely between midnight and 6 a.m. unless a parent decides to override the restrictions.
Default settings will also block Meta from sending minors notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., with similar prohibitions applying during school hours from mid-August to mid-June.
Restrictions could get even tighter. If social media competitors like Snapchat, TikTok or YouTube agree to follow suit, daily time limits would drop to one hour, and the nighttime access block would last from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., according to the terms of the proposed settlement.
Within minutes of the settlement becoming public Wednesday, Meta urged TikTok and YouTube to adopt the new child safety standards "because we know that when teens are restricted on one app, they simply move to another."
"Its success depends on all other social media platforms following Meta's lead," Meta Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said in a statement.
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