Meta to impose two-hour daily usage limit for kids across Facebook and Instagram as part of $17.1 billion settlement

Meta has reached a $17 billion settlement agreement that will add mandatory daily use limits for under-18s to its apps, in a lawsuit that accused the social media giant of designing its app to be addictive for teens.  

Under the terms of the settlement, Meta will be required to introduce a mandatory two-hour daily use limit on teen Facebook and Instagram accounts, and block the apps and their push notifications late at night or during school hours. The company also must redesign its platforms to reduce social comparison features such as likes on teen accounts, and offer an option for a non-personalized feed that doesn’t tailor its platforms’ algorithm to target teen users.

Meta also has to include age verification measures that block children under 13 from using its apps, and detect users under 18.  

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who led the coalition of state attorneys general, said in a statement Wednesday that if the settlement is approved, California would receive between $1.5 billion and $2.1 billion.

“Today, we have secured a settlement with Meta that will make social media less dangerous for our kids and make a world of a difference for children and their families,” said Bonta, in a statement. “Meta has agreed to make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm from its platforms, and will do it within months.”

The bulk of the settlement payment which Meta says is “approximately $18 billion” will be used to resolve state privacy claims against the company, and fund youth safety online initiatives.

Participating states will receive roughly $12.7 billion, or 70% of the settlement, in annual installments over a 10-year period.  

But Meta said in a statement that the remaining 30% of the payment, about $5.3 billion, will be released to states only when “YouTube and TikTok each pay an amount matching the 30% figure, with half of the remaining funds tied to YouTube’s payment and half tied to TikTok’s” and both platforms put similar restrictions on daily time limits, night mode and age verification.  

“The framework we’ve negotiated will empower parents to easily manage how their children access our platforms,” Meta chief legal officer CJ Mahoney said in an email to Yahoo Tech.

“Our new Time Limit commitments, Night Mode features and usage limits during school hours, set the right path forward for our whole industry, but this framework will only work if all our peers join us. Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution. We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework, right away.”

TikTok and Google, which owns YouTube, did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
The pending agreement puts an end to a trial that sought to prove that Meta was responsible for a mental health crisis among children by designing its apps to keep users scrolling in pursuit of likes and views on their accounts.

The lawsuit alleged Meta illegally collected and used the data of children under the age of 13 in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, and misled the public about the safety of its platforms.

The federal trial included claims from California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey alleging Meta violated their states’ consumer protection laws.  
Along with the monetary payouts and new features to the platforms, the settlement calls for a third-party auditor to be appointed to monitor how the company is complying with the terms of the settlement.

In addition, Meta will be subject to an injunction that bars it from making further “false, misleading or deceptive statements” about its safety features.
Meta denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement agreement, Reuters reported, and the company’s stock ticked higher in early trading on Wednesday