Meta reached an estimated $18 billion dollar settlement case on Aug. 26, in which states accused the company’s addictive platform for harming teens. While Meta acceded to the settlement, the company denied all legal allegations and liability, accepting under the statement of leading new regulations protecting for teen’s mental health and privacy on social media apps.
“It does not surprise me that Meta is being accused of addicting children, because that is the type of company they are,” senior Sydney Meier said. “These social media apps are constructed to target consumers by captivating audiences, and the way that they do this is by having a certain personalized appeal which draws viewers in.”
The case was initiated in 2023, when a bipartisan coalition of US state attorney-generals from over 40 states, spearheaded by California, New York, and Colorado, made the accusation against Meta. Following the filing of the lawsuit, Meta Motioned to Dismiss the claims, however the presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied Meta’s motion, allowing the lawsuit to move forward. The sharing of evidence between the two sides proceeded to take place for the following two years, with the case only reaching court for one week in Aug., before Meta settled, according to LitPRO.
“In the U.S., this is the first time that the government has taken any meaningful action to try to regulate the behavior of social media companies, and we can assume that Meta will be held fairly strictly to these safeguard policies, for courts are fairly good at enforcing terms of settlements,” Global Politics teacher Michael Buckley said. “That being said, the total value of the settlement, $17 billion, is very small in comparison to Meta’s profits, representing around a quarter of what the company takes away above costs per year, so Meta, overall, is getting off without major repercussions.”
Following the settlement, Meta will give 70% of the $18 billion settlement to the participating states, to allocate the funds to support online youth safety initiatives and other expenses, chosen at individual states discretion, over the next ten years. However, the remaining 30% will only be released under the contingent that both YouTube and TikTok implement one-hour Daily Limits and nighttime blackouts and that each pay an additional 30% ($5.3 billion) into Instagram’s youth-safety fund, according to Meta.
“On average, I spend a maximum of 1 hour per day on Instagram, so the new limits will not drastically change my life,” senior Vivienne Tang said. “However, for the people these regulations are supposed to help, I do not believe they will be that successful, because there are so many other platforms out there; unless they too put time restrictions on, kids will continue to have the same amount of screen time, just on different apps.”
Following this landmark case, court-ordered mandates are forcing Meta to change several Instagram settings in order to decrease social media addiction. These new changes are solely for users under 18 years, and will go into effect over the next six months. Key changes include: adding two-hour daily limits that will need parent permission to turn off, silencing Instagram notifications from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the school day, stronger age verification measures, and allowing the option for a non-algorithmic feed, according to Facebook.
“With every single algorithm on my feed is so personalized to exactly my preferences, of course I feel like I cannot stop scrolling,” Meier said. “All of the data they save on you, through likes and watch time, is used to find the best content to get you to continue watching and come back to their app.”
