On Wednesday, after a years-long legal battle, social media company Meta agreed to pay $17 billion and add child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms, ending a landmark trial over teen social media addiction and settling claims filed by 47 states, including Michigan.
The decision comes after researchers revealed a catastrophic failure rate for Meta’s security features for minors under 16, with nearly two-thirds failing or proving fundamentally broken—and multiple stories of young users facing deadly consequences as a result.
Related: Meta’s ‘teen safety’ tools are failing Michigan kids—and Republicans aren’t helping
Attorney General Dana Nessel said the settlement, from which Michigan will receive at least $171 million, is expected to transform how the social media industry designs products for kids and teens.
“For too many years, social media platforms have traded our children’s mental health for engagement on their apps. This historic settlement holds Meta accountable and puts critical, first-of-its-kind safeguards in place to protect Michigan kids,” said Nessel in a press release.
Meta said in a blog post that the company reached an agreement with the attorneys general and that the settlement was “building on our longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens,” and urged rival companies to adopt similar safety measures.
This includes implementing a series of new features on Facebook and Instagram, including “productive pauses” for younger users, which are designed to interrupt endless scrolling by setting a two-hour time limit with mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes. These limits will remain in place for a five-year test period; however, if Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube adopt comparable terms, the daily limit on each social media platform will drop to 60 minutes for 10 years.
The settlement also requires Meta to establish “nighttime blocks” that restrict children’s access from midnight to 6 a.m. and eliminate weekday push notifications on platforms from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the school year. There will be stronger and more user-friendly parental controls, as well as age-appropriate content controls for younger users. These safeguards are designed to protect kids from bullying while limiting access to content that promotes eating disorders, suicide, or self-harm.
While the news is worth celebrating, Nessel said that efforts to protect children and teens online must continue.
“Now, the responsibility to protect our youth cannot end here. It is my hope that this is a turning point for the entire social media industry to prioritize the safety and well-being of children over their bottom line,” said Nessel.
