Meta has agreed to pay $US17 billion ($24 billion) and introduce new child safety measures across Facebook and Instagram, bringing a major US trial over teen social media addiction to an end and resolving claims brought by 47 states, state attorneys general said on Wednesday.
The settlement stops a closely watched case that had been heading toward testimony from chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in federal court in California. California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey were among 29 states that sued the company in 2023. Separate cases brought by other states had been expected to be heard later, and nine attorneys general also filed lawsuits in their own states.
In Virginia alone, the deal is valued at $US353 million ($492 million). Attorney General Jay Jones said in a statement that it ranks among the largest consumer protection settlements in state history.
“For years, Meta intentionally deceived the public about the addictive and harmful design features that have wreaked havoc on youth mental health,” Jones said. The settlement “will put an end to these dangerous practices and deliver meaningful relief that will protect children from online harm”.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The $US17 billion ($24 billion) payout represents only a small share of the company’s 2025 revenue of $US201 billion ($280 billion).
The lawsuit alleged that Meta worsened the youth mental health crisis by intentionally building features that kept children hooked on its platforms, then concealing those harms from the public. It also said the company broke federal law by regularly collecting data from children under 13 without parental consent.
The trial began last week in Oakland, California, under US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. Late on Tuesday, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri started giving evidence and defended Meta’s performance and improvements on child safety and privacy.
Under the proposed settlement, Meta agreed to add several new protections, including a “hard cap” on daily time use and breaks for children on Instagram and Facebook. The company will also remove push notifications during weekday school hours and implement “robust” age assurance measures and “age-appropriate” content controls aimed at stopping bullying and harmful material involving eating disorders and self-harm.
Parental controls will be strengthened and made easier to use, and the platforms will place limits on social comparison features such as “like” counts.
The federal lawsuit grew out of an investigation led by a bipartisan group of attorneys general from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Vermont. It followed reporting first published by The Wall Street Journal in 2021, which said the company was aware of the damage Instagram could cause teenagers, especially teen girls, in relation to mental health and body image.
Meta has since rolled out a range of Instagram safety changes, including separate accounts for teenagers with tighter protections on messaging and privacy, as well as content restrictions. Even so, child safety experts and some former Meta employees have argued that those measures amount to little more than window dressing.
One of them, former Meta engineering director Arturo Béjar, testified last week that the company repeatedly put profit ahead of safety when shaping its products, concentrating on how often and how long people stayed on them, even when that harmed mental well-being.
“If you step away from the product, they are not going to make any money,” he said.
Although the four states involved in the Oakland trial did not formally disclose how much they were seeking, Meta said in a court filing that the financial penalties could hit the trillion dollar mark, a number legal experts disputed.
