Meta agrees to pay billions to settle claims its platforms harm children
Meta owns social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp
- Published
Meta - the giant tech company that owns socials like Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp - has agreed to pay up to $18 billion (that's over £13 billion) to settle claims its platforms harm children.
Meta has agreed to pay the money and make changes to its apps to end the trial brought by lots of US states.
A settlement is an agreement between sides in a court case to end a trial early, without either side admitting wrongdoing.
It's a bit of a complicated story so let's break it down together...
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Why was Meta in court in the first place?
The case against Meta was brought to court in the US in 2023 by 29 US states, including California and New York.
They accused Meta of breaking laws designed to protect children online.
The US states said Meta's apps were designed to keep children and teenagers using them for as long as possible.
They pointed to features such as videos playing automatically, Instagram Stories and lots of notifications.
They also said Meta made it too difficult for young people to take a break from the apps and did not always give people a clear picture of how safe the platforms were for children.
Another accusation was that Meta collected and used children's personal information in ways it should not have.
Meta has denied the claims.
So, what's happened to the trial against Meta now?
Meta has agreed to make a lot of changes to their socials to keep children safer
The court case has been suspended because Meta said they would settle the case.
That basically means they will pay lots of money and make changes to their services, so both sides (Meta and the states) will agree to end the court case without waiting for a judge to decide who wins.
The trial began just over a week ago, and was expected to last six weeks.
The judge in charge of the trial, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, has said that she is likely to give this deal the green light.
For now, she says she will suspend the trial.
"I'm quite happy," she said.
What changes have Meta agreed to as part of the settlement?
California is one of the states suing the company.
And according to a top lawyer for the government there, the settlement includes the following things:
An automatic daily time limit of two hours for users under 18 that can only be lifted by a parent
An automatic nighttime block between midnight and 06:00 for users under 18 that can only be lifted by a parent
Automatic blocks on notifications to users under 18 from 22:00 to 07:00 and during the school day
A better way for teens to report potentially harmful content and a requirement that Meta respond to 90% of those reports within six hours
A ban on displaying numbers of likes or reactions to users under 18
An option for users under 18 to have a non-personalised feed
This is just a few examples of some of the changes, the full list is really long.
What has Meta said?
Meta has consistently denied claims that it has failed teens.
Meta welcomed the settlement, calling it an "important step", and saying it hopes to set a new "industry standard".
They said that "ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms" is really important to them.
"We want to get this right for parents and teens," the statement says.
The company also called on TikTok and YouTube to make the same changes.
Does this affect the UK too?
This case happened in the United States but it's likely to have effects worldwide.
But you might remember that the UK government wants to bring in a social media ban for under 16s.
Other countries have already done similar things.
In France, a social media ban for children will start in January 2027.
And in Australia, social media has been banned for under 16s since 2024.
