Meta Settles Youth Safety Lawsuits With 48 States for $18 Billion
The deal ends a landmark trial over claims Meta designed Instagram and Facebook to addict children, but litigation continues in New Mexico, Florida and thousands of other cases.
A settlement announced Wednesday between Meta and 48 states resolves one of the company's biggest legal fights, though the social media giant still faces litigation elsewhere over its products' effects on young people's mental health.
The deal cut short a trial in federal court in Oakland, California, where Meta was fighting claims it deliberately designed features to get children addicted. Under the agreement, Meta will pay up to $18 billion and make changes to how its platforms operate, including new safeguards for child safety.
The case featured four lead plaintiff states — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey — among dozens that sued Meta three years ago over its design features and resulting harm to children. The settlement also halted a separate trial underway in Tennessee, whose attorney general, Jonathan Skrmetti, said it delivers "unprecedented protections for kids and record-setting money" for the state's Children's Digital Protection Fund.
Two states did not join the settlement. New Mexico had already won its own case: a jury in March found thousands of violations by Meta, and a judge in August ordered the company to pay an additional $567 million and imposed new safety measures, including a 90-hour monthly limit for users under 18. Meta has said it disagrees with the verdict. Florida also declined to join, with its attorney general saying the settlement wasn't tough enough on Meta.
Beyond the states' cases, hundreds of school districts have sued major platforms over costs tied to student mental health harms. A bellwether case brought by a Kentucky district was set for trial this summer, but Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube all settled before it began.
Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube liable in a separate bellwether case brought by a plaintiff identified as KGM, awarding $6 million in damages after she testified she became addicted to social media as a child. Meta and YouTube have appealed. Thousands of similar individual lawsuits remain pending nationwide, including some filed by families of children who died by suicide or drug overdoses linked to social media use.
This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), in accordance with our editorial policy.
