SALT LAKE CITY — Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has settled its social media lawsuit with Utah and other states for billions of dollars and agreed to implement numerous safeguards for child users.
Utah will get $212 million over the next 10 years out of $12.2 billion going to numerous states. That number will balloon up to $17 billion if other tech platforms, like Snap, TikTok and YouTube agree to "substantially similar" injunctive terms.
Meta has also agreed to new conditions for child and teen accounts. They include:
- Robust age assurance measures to more effectively verify the age of young users.
- A combined two-hour daily time limit across Instagram and Facebook, with mandatory “Productive Pause” breaks after 15, 60, and 90 minutes of continuous use, in effect for five years, and dropping to 60 minutes per platform for 10 years if Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube adopt comparable terms.
- “Nighttime blocks” restricting children’s access from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
- No push notifications to children on school-year weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and late at night.
- An option for a non-personalized algorithmic feed to users under 18.
- Age-appropriate content controls, with stronger safeguards against bullying and content promoting eating disorders, suicide, and self-harm.
- Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls.
- Limits on social-comparison features linked to poor youth mental health, including beauty filters and visible “like” counts.
- Both the implementation and efficacy of the features will be regularly assessed by an independent auditor and the settling states.
It stems from lawsuits Utah and other states have filed, alleging Meta crafted addictive algorithms and other features that harmed the mental health of youth. Governor Spencer Cox has waged a long-running war with social media platforms, accusing them of causing significant damage to the mental health of youth.
“More than three years ago, I said that without strong action, social media companies would not make the changes necessary to protect our children,” Gov. Cox said in a statement announcing the terms. “Today’s historic settlement proves both the urgency of that warning and what determined state action can accomplish. These unprecedented reforms will help protect millions of children, and they make clear that Meta could have chosen to implement these changes and protect children all along. We will hold Meta to every promise it has made, and we will continue fighting to ensure every platform puts the well-being of children ahead of profit.”
In its own statement, Meta characterized it as "building on our longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens."
"Ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta. We want to get this right for parents and teens, and that’s why we partnered with state attorneys general to set a new industry standard," the company said.
Meta went further to call on TikTok and YouTube to do similar.
Utah has continued litigation against TikTok and Snap.
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