Meta settles major teen safety lawsuit with 29 US states

Meta has settled a major teen safety lawsuit brought by 29 US state attorneys general, avoiding what could have been a trial costing hundreds of billions of dollars. The settlement introduces sweeping restrictions on how the social media giant can engage teenage users, including mandatory age verification, limits on screen time, and changes to how content is recommended to minors.

Age verification and content controls

At the heart of the agreement is a new age assurance standard that will be independently tested. The system must achieve a false positive rate no higher than 10 percent for users aged 16 to 17, and 3 percent for users aged 13 to 15. Meta will also give teens the option to disable personalized feeds entirely, meaning they won’t receive content based on the platform’s recommendation algorithm.

The company has committed to disabling push notifications for teens between 10 PM and 7 AM unless parents opt out of these restrictions. During school hours, push notifications will also be turned off by default. Meta will implement “productive pauses” at 60 and 90 minutes of daily app use, and display a clear notice after just 15 minutes of use.

Usage limits and financial commitment

Meta will cap teen usage to two hours per day on its apps, with exceptions for messaging and longform content. The company has also agreed to disable filters that simulate cosmetic procedures and remove likes from posts to reduce social comparison among young users.

Financially, Meta will pay $17.1 billion to states over 10 years. However, $5.3 billion of this amount is conditional—it will only be paid if YouTube and TikTok implement equivalent daily time limits and contribute matching amounts themselves. The settlement also requires Meta to link accounts owned by single users to prevent circumvention of these new rules and to provide an appeals process for affected users.

المصدر: The Verge