Meta settles states' child-safety claims for $18B; Florida rejects deal as "peanuts"
Meta to impose daily limit on child social media use in deal with nearly every state.
Meta to impose daily limit on child social media use in deal with nearly every state.
The short version
- Meta agreed to impose daily limits on children’s social media use and pay nearly $18 billion in settlements with nearly every US state today, cutting short a trial in which Meta said several of the states were demanding over $1.4 trillion.
- The settlement requires court approval.
- Meta is facing claims that it designed its products to foster compulsive use by children and failed to warn users of addiction and mental health risks.
What happened
The two-hour daily “limit is cumulative across Facebook and Instagram, and time spent scrolling on both apps counts toward the total, including if we detect that someone has multiple accounts,” Meta said. The settlement has a clause that would reduce Meta’s payment by $5 billion if other top social media firms don’t agree to similar terms.
Why it matters
The states and Meta urged a judge to approve the 10-year settlement in a filing today in US District Court for the Northern District of California.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.