Meta agrees to pay $18 billion settlement
Washington, Aug 26 (KUNA) -- The California Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that Meta, the parent company of several of the most widely used social media platforms, has reached a preliminary settlement worth $18 billion with most U.S. states. The deal entails sweeping changes that would significantly restrict minors’ access to Instagram and Facebook. According to the U.S. newspaper Politico, the agreement would bring an end to a landmark trial over allegations brought by California and more than 24 other states that Meta deliberately engineered its platforms to be addictive to children and misled users about the potential harms of those platforms.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement, “We have reached a settlement with Meta that will make social media safer for our children and will make a tremendous difference for kids and their families.” He noted that the terms of the agreement call for “transformative changes that will reduce the risk of harm.”
Although the changes approved by Meta will apply only in the United States, their impact will be far-reaching, as the company prepares to implement safety measures that online safety advocates have long sought to extract from Congress over the years. Instagram and Facebook together have hundreds of millions of U.S. users, including many teenagers and parents who will be most affected by the new child safety features.
According to Bonta’s office, the settlement requires Meta to put in place safeguards on its platforms to limit minors’ usage time to no more than two hours per day and to ban their use entirely between midnight and 6 a.m., unless a parent opts to override these restrictions. Default settings will also prevent Meta from sending notifications to minors between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., with similar restrictions applied during school hours from mid-August to mid-June.
The restrictions could become stricter if competitors in the social media sector, such as Snapchat, TikTok, or YouTube, agree to take similar steps. In that case, the maximum daily usage would be reduced to one hour, and the nighttime access ban would be extended from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., according to the proposed settlement terms. (End) R.S.R./A.M.S.
