Washington, Aug 27. (dpa/GNA) – Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to pay nearly $16.7 billion to settle a US lawsuit over children’s use of its apps, and introduce a range of new safeguards for teenage users.
The lawsuit was brought by 29 US states over social media addiction in children. The sum is to be divided among the states, several US territories and the District of Columbia. The parties have agreed to settle the lawsuit without further court proceedings, according to the agreement.
The states had accused the company of deliberately luring children into excessive use of Facebook and Instagram, while concealing the risks from parents and the public. Meta denied the allegations at the time, and continues to do so following the settlement.
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, described the settlement as a “monumental victory for the protection of America’s children.” “For years, Meta intentionally deceived the public about the addictive and harmful design features that have wreaked havoc on youth mental health,” he said in a press release.
As part of the settlement, Meta agreed to introduce new restrictions aimed at protecting young people and giving parents greater control.
Subject to court approval, the measures would automatically apply to minors using Instagram and Facebook for 10 years. Among the measures is a daily two-hour time limit that children and teenagers would only be able to disable with parental consent, applying cumulatively across Facebook and Instagram.
The apps would also switch to a restricted night mode between midnight and 6 am, preventing users from publishing posts or viewing content.
Teenagers would receive prompts after every 15 minutes of continuous use of Facebook or Instagram, as well as when their total daily usage reaches 60 and 90 minutes.
In an effort to address potentially harmful beauty standards, Meta said it would disable filters for “cosmetic surgery and extreme make-up.” The much-criticized likes and reactions feature would also be hidden by default, meaning young users would be unable to see how much engagement their own posts or those of other users had received.
The jury trial in Oakland, California, began on Tuesday last week. The states, led by California, had sought financial penalties for Meta as well as conditions requiring changes to the business model.
Several months ago, Meta stated in a court document that the penalties sought by the states could amount to $1.4 trillion, and could threaten the company’s existence.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs had suggested the figure was more likely to be around $200 billion. Series of setbacks for MetaMeta has recently suffered several significant defeats in US courts.
Under a court ruling in the state of New Mexico, the company is to pay more than half a billion dollars, to help children harmed by their use of social media. Additional restrictions are also to be introduced in that state for users under the age of 18, including a limit of 90 hours per month on Facebook and Instagram.
Meta said it intends to appeal. In March, Meta and Google’s video platform YouTube, lost a potentially landmark case over the addictive potential of online services.
A jury in Los Angeles concluded that the platforms had acted negligently and had insufficiently informed users about the risks.
Both companies also intend to challenge that ruling.
GNA