Meta agrees to $17.1B settlement with 47 states over child safety and privacy violations

Meta agreed to a settlement of up to $17.1 billion with 47 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories over allegations it violated federal child privacy laws and state consumer protection statutes. The agreement resolves a bellwether federal trial in the U.S. Northern District of California, where California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey had sought roughly $200 billion. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is expected to approve the settlement.

The settlement requires Meta to implement product changes intended to limit teens’ exposure to potentially harmful features. These include capping teens’ cumulative daily time on Facebook and Instagram to two hours, blocking most app features between midnight and 6 a.m., and muting non-critical push notifications from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on school days. The agreement also enables by default the “take a break” prompts that previously had adoption rates as low as 0.165%, and hides like counts for teens by default, reviving an earlier experiment known as “Project Daisy.”

Meta’s obligations are tied to those of its competitors. The two-hour time limit and overnight feature block will remain in place for only five years unless YouTube and TikTok adopt the same restrictions, in which case the duration extends to 10 years. Meta also pledged to pay the full $17.1 billion only if YouTube, TikTok, and Snap agree to similar product changes. Separately, Meta settled with Texas for about $1 billion over similar allegations.

The agreement follows testimony from a former Meta data scientist, George Volichenko, who stated that internal teams faced limited freedom to implement effective safety features. He described an instance where an opt-in 10-minute break prompt saw minimal adoption, and when he raised concerns, he was told the team’s role included protecting the company from lawsuits. Meta did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement.