Meta will pay up to $18 billion to settle states' lawsuit alleging harms to young users - Engadget

The company called on YouTube and TikTok to join it in setting time limits for teens. Meta has agreed to settle a high-profile case over children's privacy and social media addiction. The company will pay up to $18 billion and make changes to its platforms to resolve claims from dozens of states that it designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to young users and collected children's personal data. A court still needs to sign off on the proposed settlement, in which Meta denied wrongdoing. Among other things, Meta agreed to set a default two-hour daily time limit for users aged under 18. Only a parent will be able to increase those limits. It will block apps for young users between midnight and 6AM by default (with a parent able to adjust those limits too). It has committed to provide "clear prompts and notifications to teens every 15 minutes of continuous screen time" and to remind teens when they've used its apps for cumulative totals of 60 and 90 minutes each day. Notably, the company said it will reduce the daily time limit to one hour and expand the nighttime blackout to between 10PM and 7AM if its rivals agree to do the same. "We want to ensure teens benefit from this n