Meta Agrees to $17B Settlement Over Social Media Addiction

Meta will pay $17.1 billion to settle a lawsuit. 47 states and four territories accused Meta of making social media addictive for kids.

White sign with blue infinity symbol and text "Meta 1 Hacker W" on a street with a car passing by. — Source: FOX 59

INDIANAPOLIS — Social media giant Meta will pay $17.1 billion to settle a lawsuit.

47 states and four territories accused Meta of making Facebook and Instagram intentionally addictive for children and teenagers. The lawsuit claimed Meta built harmful features to keep kids hooked while falsely asserting its platforms were safe.

If a judge approves the settlement, Indiana will receive nearly $250 million, with payouts potentially reaching up to $420 million.

“This settlement is a milestone victory for Hoosier families,” Rokita said. “For years, Meta prioritized engagement and profits over the mental health and well-being of our children. Today, we are securing both meaningful accountability and concrete changes that will help protect the next generation. Parents will finally have stronger tools, including opting their teens out of algorithm-driven scrolling designed to keep them hooked.”

The agreement mandates platform safety changes.

Meta will enforce a two-hour combined daily time limit for kids on Instagram and Facebook. Mandatory pauses will interrupt continuous scrolling after 15, 60, and 90 minutes. Platforms will also block access between midnight and 6 a.m.

Meta announced the settlement Wednesday, urging other platforms like YouTube and TikTok to make similar changes.

“I’m pleased to announce that Meta has reached an agreement with a bipartisan group of state attorneys general from around the country on a new set of rules governing teens’ use of social media,” C.J. Mahoney, Chief Legal Officer at Meta, said. “The framework we’ve negotiated will empower parents to easily manage how their children access our platforms. 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.”