Meta Faces £13.3 Billion US Settlement Over Child Addiction Claims
Agreement resolves claims from 47 states, while UK plans social media ban for young people next year.
Image: Eddie Pollard / AI
Sarah Connor
Meta has agreed to pay up to 18 billion US dollars (£13.3 billion) to settle a legal battle in the US.
A settlement resolves accusations against Meta, though company attorneys consistently denied the allegations during the trial. This resolution awaits judicial approval; Meta accepted no wrongdoing in its settlement, maintaining its denial of all allegations throughout the proceedings.
Meta stated in an emailed statement that the states' claims lack substantiation, asserting its record of creating robust protections for teens. These include enhanced privacy settings and a one-hour timer on Instagram to prompt app closure.
The US settlement mandates daily limits, nighttime blocks, and hidden likes for US users across Instagram and Facebook. Meta will also strengthen age estimates to prevent children under 13 from accessing its platforms.
Certain safety features, such as a two-hour time limit and night mode, will default for minors. The company is understood to be upgrading its age-verification technology, utilizing both its own and third-party systems, subject to independent audits; it will reportedly hide 'like' counts for users under 18.
Despite these new measures, critics and children's advocates caution that the changes will not resolve Meta's myriad problems overnight. Child-safety advocates warn parents against assuming the platforms will immediately become safe.
Arturo Béjar, a former Meta employee, claims the settlement lacks independent oversight. He states it does not necessarily make Meta’s platforms safer for young people.
I mean, we don’t want a situation where young people in America have got a higher rate of protection than young people in the UK.
Béjar further alleges that Meta's CEO lied about the company’s commitment to child safety and ignored warnings regarding harmful content. Separately, the UK Government plans to implement a social media ban for young people next year.
This UK plan builds on the Online Safety Act 2023, which has been in place for some time. Pat McFadden stated that the UK has maintained a “more robust attitude for some time compared to authorities elsewhere in the world” through its Online Safety Act 2023.
McFadden expects Meta’s new protections for teenagers in the US to extend to the UK. He stated, "I mean, we don’t want a situation where young people in America have got a higher rate of protection than young people in the UK."
He affirmed, "Yeah, we would," when asked if the UK would receive the same protections. McFadden added, "But we’re not just leaving it to Meta. We’re taking action ourselves."
McFadden highlighted the UK's proactive stance, stating, "We’re also having night time curfews. We’ve got to do something about this endless scrolling, which is so addictive for young people."
Campaigners claim the US settlement demonstrates that tech giants can be held accountable for harmful and addictive platform features. McFadden concluded, "There’s a great side to this technology."
"I know it’s opened up a world of knowledge that didn’t exist when I was growing up, but we also need to operate in a way that understands how addictive it is, and make sure that children and young people can have a real childhood in the real physical world." He added that such measures are "better for their mental health and better for all of us in the future."