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Meta Reaches $18 Billion of Settlements Over Children's Social Media Addiction (yahoo.com) 70

Posted by BeauHD from the engagement-limits dept.
Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion and make major changes to Facebook and Instagram to settle claims from most U.S. states that the platforms were designed to addict children and misled users about their safety. For the next decade, teens will be limited to two hours a day and blocked from using the apps between midnight and 6 a.m. without parental consent. Meta will, however, still be allowed to use personalized recommendations and targeted advertising. Reuters reports: The settlements include more than $17.6 billion of payments to 48 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. Meta will also pay $459 million to resolve states' privacy claims related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where the British consulting firm collected personal data of millions of Facebook users. California would receive the highest payout, $2.2 billion, and New York and Texas would each receive more than $1 billion. Some of the payout is contingent on whether Alphabet's YouTube and ByteDance's TikTok impose similar protections for children. [...]

The settlement requires approval by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who oversaw the trial that began on August 18. Gonzalez Rogers still oversees thousands of lawsuits by individuals, school districts, and state and local governments accusing social media companies of harming children. Meta itself still faces thousands of lawsuits by individuals, school districts and municipalities. The next trials are slated for October in Los Angeles.

Meta Reaches $18 Billion of Settlements Over Children's Social Media Addiction More | Reply

Meta Reaches $18 Billion of Settlements Over Children's Social Media Addiction

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  • we got ripped off badly (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @01:14PM (#66308132)

    Ruin a couple generations of kids? No worries, $18B ought to cover that. Such bullshit.

    This seems like just a start but all platforms need to stop the harmful practices.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Powercntrl ( 458442 )

      I realize parenting doesn't come with an instruction manual, but come on. If you've used Facebook it was pretty obvious that it wasn't appropriate for kids. So we're just gonna ignore that a bunch of parents gave their kids smartphones and tablets, didn't bother to set up the parental controls, and just said with a shrug "this is probably fine."?

      I get that Facebook made it appear that their product was appropriate for kids, but a stroll through your local grocery store will reveal a whole bunch of compani

      • I have to agree. I'm not defending Facebooks' practices, but at the same time? It seems to me social media as a whole can become addictive, or promote bad ideas to kids or teens. You have to control this at the parental level ... not just depend on corporations to self-police it all.

        So sure... slap them with large fines and use the money for good, where you can. I'm not opposed. But your kid or teen wouldn't be spending all day on social media if you controlled it as their parent. By the time they're old en

        • Re:Personal accountability.... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by kellin ( 28417 ) on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @02:29PM (#66308280)

          Ya'll acting like parents suddenly stopped parenting. Tell me, how many of you are GenXers who got away with doing whatever you wanted? Latchky kids, out all afternoon doing whatever.. calling parents lying about where they were staying, etc..

          Nothing new under the sun. Its true, parents should do a better job at parenting, but that's almost never been true, especially with city kids.

          • Tell me, how many of you are GenXers who got away with doing whatever you wanted?

            Yeah, there were always some kids who smoked and figured out how to get ahold of alcohol, but that wasn't normalized. We didn't literally have parents going "Here's something intended for adults, have at it." in the way it seems almost every kid has a smartphone nowadays.

            It's not just smart devices either. Orange County (Florida, not CA) recently had to ban e-bikes and e-scooters from their public schools because parents couldn't be arsed to figure out which ones met the legal requirements before buying t

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by King_TJ ( 85913 )

              Right! That's exactly it. I was part of "Gen X" myself, and while I had friends who lived the whole "latchkey kid" lifestyle to the max? It really wasn't the norm to just be unsupervised all day or night.

              I remember my folks both worked, but my mom went to working only part-time, early in the morning until around the lunch hour, when we were younger. She hired an older lady as a part-time nanny for us while she was gone. When we got older, mom was always home by the time school let out - so we barely knew s

              • So you had money to hire a part time sitter? That's a whole lot more then latchkey families had. Self-babysitting was the thing and here still were are. I'd argue it just helped us grow up faster and made us more resilient.

                I feel bad for today's children. So many helicopter parents that schedule every minute of their child's life and solves every problem that comes their child's way. By the time the kid reaches adulthood, they still can't handle things themselves. It's very sad but seems pervasive in our so

      • Re:we got ripped off badly (Score:5, Insightful)

        by fropenn ( 1116699 ) on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @03:29PM (#66308358)

        Parents are supposed to be the ones reading the labels

        Where's the warning label for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok?

        How about this:
        -We use a team of psychologists and engineers to make this product as addictive as possible. We know this may cause developmental harm, anxiety, depression, or even thoughts of suicide. We know it may affect their schoolwork, their friendships, their healthy development. We don't care.
        -If your child dies from using our product, we will keep their page available so those mourning their loss can reminisce about their time together. And also so we can sell more ads.
        -We sell your child's data to the highest bidder, and that includes pedophiles.
        -Your child may be harassed, bullied, insulted, or even told to kill themselves. We won't notify you or do anything substantive about it.
        -Our product is accessible through every phone, tablet, computer, laptop, or other internet-connected devices, and there's no way you can logically block your child's access.
        -Evil laugh here.

        • Where's the warning label for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok?

          Usually there's a need for age appropriateness warning labels on things when a parent can't reasonably be expected to sit through an entire movie or play a video game to determine its age appropriateness. Most adults who are giving their kids access to a smart device, though, probably do have enough familiarity with Facebook to make their own determination as to whether or not they want their kids using it. It's also been possible for as long as these sites have existed, to do a Google search on professio

        • Don't short us on the End Game now.

          -We grow Too Big to be called anything less than Magnificent in the stock market. If you dare try and shut us down we will threaten your entire fiscal model of existence, to include every pension and 401k far Too Bigly invested now. If we fail, you fail. Happy Scrolling!

        • The warning is from you yourself using social media. If you cannot figure out the dangers, then you shouldn't have the responsibility of raising a kid.

      • a stroll through your local grocery store will reveal a whole bunch of companies doing exactly the same thing with unhealthy foods. Parents are supposed to be the ones reading the labels and realizing that the mega pack of "fruit" snacks with the picture of two happy children on the front [motts.com] is really just clever marketing for junk food that consists primarily of empty calories from sugar.

        Just because other industries do it, doesn't make it any less evil. Tobacco companies used to market their products at children too, until eventually the community pushed back.

        My pet peeve with food marketed to kids is the fake "healthy" labels where a snack has a big picture of fruit or vegetables on it, then you read the ingredients and it's mostly corn starch with like 0.2% of the ingredient that is in the big glossy picture. The "yoghurt buttons" mentioned in this article contain more sugar per gram th

    • And adults. Also the price they paid is a pittance.

    • Re:we got ripped off badly (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ozzymodus12 ( 8111534 ) on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @03:23PM (#66308352)
      If only kids had parents or guardians instead of billion dollar tech companies babysitting the children.

    • Ruin them? How? By feeding them more of the stuff they like so real life is boring now? By showing them stuff they would earlier have gotten from goatse or rottencom? By showing them the rotten political underbelly of society that in old times would have agitated completely without their knowledge? Why is this "addiction" worse than what World of Warcraft or 24 hour news channels did?

      • Why is this "addiction" worse than what World of Warcraft or 24 hour news channels did?

        Because it's forced on them 24/7 with aggressive push notifications, to a device they carry with them 24/7. Hell, often the parents insist that the kid carries it with them 24/7 for "safety."

        • Why is this "addiction" worse than what World of Warcraft or 24 hour news channels did?

          Because it's forced on them 24/7 with aggressive push notifications, to a device they carry with them 24/7. Hell, often the parents insist that the kid carries it with them 24/7 for "safety."

          The next time a parent wants to claim they've given their child a smartphone for "safety", remind the InfoSec wizard that they've actually given them a window into the most sexualized disturbing illegal shit-you-wish-you-could-unsee content humans have ever created.

          Also known as the intertubes to Congress. The World Wide Web to purists. And The Precious to everyone else.

          All accessible from the rosied palm of little Johnny who never thinks Dirty thoughts. Especially after a parental mis-figure gave him a

    • I'm waiting for Amazon Day to buy pitchforks and torches.

    • What was all very fast. It was only last week when we read that Meta is facing $1.4 Trillion in damages from these states. It goes on to show how serious these states really were about caring for children under 13. Feels like Meta cares more for these kids than the states do.

      https://yro.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Not just kids and adults, they screwed up our democracy. Helped delivery Brexit and until amounts of Russian interference.

    • $18B ought to cover that.

      That $18B will be spent by the States on their favorite contractors. I do not see how the fine actually covers anything other than bribing government officials.

    • Ruin a couple generations of kids?

      Everything was largely fine until Feminism. You can trace every single step of this disease back to its Feminist roots.

    • Facebook 2026Q2 earnings:
      Revenue: $60.80 billion, marking a 28% increase year-over-year.
      Net Income: $15.85 billion.
      Diluted EPS: $6.18, compared to analyst expectations of around $7.14.
      Total Costs and Expenses: $42.03 billion, which included legal charges and severance costs.
      Capital Expenditures: Projected to be between $130 billion and $145 billion for the full year 2026, driven heavily by infrastructure and data center investments for AI.

      This settlement is a little over 10% of what they are spending on dat

  • Great deal (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @01:14PM (#66308134) Homepage Journal

    So a net profit for Meta and they're off the hook.

    • They know it’s true otherwise a much smaller payment would have this trouble dealt with.

    • They saw the writing on the wall and did the smart thing. Settle. It sounds like a big number, until you put it in the context of the 1B LOSS they had in New Mexico. And I've not looked up the numbers, but I suspect Cal has way more than 2.2X the population of NM. And Cal is only getting 2.2 of the total. So they cut a deal and probably saved around half what could have easily happened.

  • They Got Off So Easy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by WankerWeasel ( 875277 ) on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @01:20PM (#66308146)

    MASSIVE win for Meta. They faced as much as $1.4 TRILLION in liability and got off with just $17 billion. But more importantly for them it avoids really admitting wrongdoing and avoids having all their internal work come out. They had countless Meta employees who were going to have to testify about their goals to addict children and they avoided that.

    They got a slap on the wrist and can largely continue doing what they were doing, rather than having to take any responsibility or paying for their actions.

    • They got a slap on the wrist and can largely continue doing what they were doing, rather than having to take any responsibility or paying for their actions.

      With the caveat that there will probably be some sort of age verification coming so they can enforce their screen time limits on the underaged users. Though, we were kind of heading in that direction anyway with quite a few states becoming quite keen on the idea that adults should have to show ID to every damn site on the internet where one could possibly express an opinion or see some naughty bits.

      • Papiere, bitte.

        But... yes. This is something that they were already working on implementing, and was one of the key requirements from the states in the settlement.

        • And now that Facebook Marketplace pretty much killed off craigslist, I have to submit a full head scan to facebook to open an account to sell my used bicycle.

          Quite the reality we're building for ourselves, like you said, Papiere bitte.

      • Yes but we all know there will be a "how to" avoid the verification and screen time limits. I could see some combo of VPN's, pictures of adults taped over the kids face, ... Meta is getting away with murder, again.

        • What's your solution? Ban social media for all? No thanks. That would essentially mean banning user generated content for everyone. Screw that shit.

          Or maybe you think we should require a government ID to go online at all. Yeah, that would work. Once again, no fucking thank you.

          I'd sincerely like to hear your grand plan to keep kids off the Internet. Average kid is just as intelligent as the average adult, they just don't have as much knowledge, experience or morals as your average adult. So they'll be able

          • Here is a thought. Meta could have researched how to design the system to NOT turn children into zombies. Zombies to watch ads for meta cash. They have agreed to stop continuous scrolling, because well they knew it was addictive of course, they designed it to be and now we know it too. But what are the odds that their very smart people will come up with a new improved way to addict kids? What are the odds?

            So here is how it could be fixed. Throw zucks ass in jail for being what is the equivalent to a drug de

            • You got my vote. I'm all for holding them accountable and since we've found them guilty in NM already, this sounds good.

    • I dont think they where ever in any real danger of having to pay $1.4 tril. They where perfectly capable of keeping this thing in the courts basically forever and win the whole thing by pure attrition. Thats what happens when your company is wealthy enough that laws don't really apply anymore.

      But what DID worry them was regulatory and reputational danger. You can beat anything in court if you have inifinite lawyers, but that wont save you if the government just decides to take your toys away and all the cus

      • I think you missed they have lost in NM. I imagine that loss told them which way the wind was blowing and while 18B means mark may not be able to afford another yacht, he can pick up another jet.

    • MASSIVE win for Meta. They faced as much as $1.4 TRILLION in liability and got off with just $17 billion.

      Furthermore, it has nowhere near the impact of a $18 billion fine (counting all payments). 30% is predicated on YouTube and TikTok agree to similar payments and changes. So, it's (at least for right now), only 18 * 0.7 = $12.6 billion. Furthermore, that $12.6 billion will be paid out over 10 years. That's really $1.26 billion per year. Yes, that's something, but $1.26 billion compared to $18 billion for a company with $62 billion in post-tax annual profit makes a big difference.

    • MASSIVE win for Meta. They faced as much as $1.4 TRILLION in liability and got off with just $17 billion.

      I have a better offer for Meta.

      They can agree to pay NO fines, but MUST agree to a full independent audit to show exactly how much they actually made in profits, which will be used to determine an actual punishment (based on percentage) so we can get rid of this slap on the wrist shit for good.

      Or they can agree to pay $2.8 trillion. Today. And get no audit. If they reach for their wallet, then you know how much worse this problem is.

  • Too Little, Too Late... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by atrimtab ( 247656 ) on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @01:28PM (#66308164)

    If Facebook/Meta gets away with this paltry settlement paid over 10 years. Then they and the rest of tech will continue to lie and abuse the public with the cognitive tricks and abuses. This settlement will just be shaved off the top as now the states will also PROFIT from tech bros abuses. And we'll back to a similar position in a few years.

    Facebook used to be *supposedly* about connecting family and friends. Now it is just a cesspool of algorithmic manipulation of all its users.

    Anything less than a complete shutdown is not acceptable.

    As a bonus the "pervert glasses" may disappear unless some other tech company wants that taint hanging over them.

    • Facebook used to be *supposedly* about connecting family and friends.

      According to Zuckerprick, you're a "dumb fuck" for believing that.

  • Every tech company from now on will be much more careful before gushing out statements such as "You're exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology" --https://www.axios.com/2017/12/15/sean-parker-facebook-was-designed-to-exploit-human-vulnerability-1513306782

  • Nice. (Score:5, Funny)

    by NMBob ( 772954 ) on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @01:32PM (#66308174) Homepage
    That should mean a check for a pretty large sum coming to an affected kid near you. Thank you lawyers!

  • Nicotine for the internet (Score:3)

    by xack ( 5304745 ) on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @01:45PM (#66308194)
    Just like tobacco companies operate in the "technically legal" sphere, the Facebooks, Reddits and X's of the world precalculate the amount of possible fines, and just run more ads to compensate for the losses. Simple bans don't work anymore thanks to distributed residential proxy botnets spoofing geolocation anywhere in the world and AI assisted ID generators.

    We have to deal with the fact that a significant part of of society have addiction disorders and no matter what the substance, someone will get addicted to it. Even Slashdot provides addictive features like mod points and troll comments. It's unfortunately part of the human experience to want easy pleasure.

    • And indeed, Slashdot has been deliberately shaped and reshaped to maximize engagement at the expense of users' emotional state, exactly like Feceboot. Notably, with the anonymous posting feature, which is wholly artificial. It is now literally and solely designed to enable trolling.

      • Yep, I'd be happy to be rid of AC posting. Though I would say, let us mod up and down in threads we have posted in. If you want, we could make it so you can't moderate on posts that you've replied to yourself but you could still scroll down the page and moderate other folks.

        But who we kidding, none of that's gonna happen.

    • I don't even think it's about addiction.

      Give someone anything appealing, they'll want it. Be it tasty food, or comfort shorts videos. You suck them in to eat the whole bag of chips, or spend 2 hours swiping down. I don't know whether that's addiction, or hypnosis, or pandering to a procrastination and not wanting do to something, so you just "kill time".

  • Nobody going to prison? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @02:04PM (#66308244)

    Then nothing will change.

    • CORRECT!!!

      Nothing will change and Meta/Facebook won't even fulfill the terms of any agreement after a little time.

      Because that is historically what they have done.

      The $1.7 Trillion ask probably was not enough to families affected.

      Books to read about Tech: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow [substack.com] Link to a review.

      "The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI is valuable. For Doctorow fans, it is another strong dose of clarity. For people who have not thought much about AI, it may

  • Whatever is popular at the time is exactly what takes the blame, first it was rock music, then TV, then violent video games, and now its "social media." I quote it because social media is one of the most anti-social activities. Next it will be AI. Old prudes will always hate on whatever is new a popular and wasn't around when they were a kid and blame it for every bad thing that ever happened. Maybe people are just a little weird, sad, and depressed sometimes?

  • Age verification checks for children is simply another phrase for mandatory ID checks for adults.

    I'm pretty sure once Age Verification laws kick in, all of Social Media is going to become a ghost town in a hurry.
    ( and nothing of value wil be lost )

    • I think you grossly under-estimate people's addiction to this stupid shit. The majority of them will gladly still engage, even with government ID checks. It's sad, but I've zero doubt that it's true.

      To parahprase George Carlin "Imagine how dumb the average person is and realize that half of them are dumber then that."

      • Well, they'll find a way to get people who don't even want to engage in the stupid stuff.

        "Want to sell your used crap? Well, we killed off craigslist and all other competition, so we're the only game in town. Now that you're logged in to sell your rollerblades, here's a ragebait post that will anger you enough to respond to".

  • Eighteen billion wonâ(TM)t be enough to cover immeasurable suffering they caused. Iâ(TM)d start by liquidating the company AND Zackâ(TM)s personal fortune to try to cover it allâ¦

  • So I'm reading that it's an $18 billion settlement and going to the states. Okay, so why isn't it going to the victims? How does the state receiving 18B correct the harm done to the consumers, since zero harm was done to the state itself.

    • Well, ideally, the state will provide the services the victim will require to recover or heal. Yeah, we know that won't happen, particularly in the Republican states.

      So, the deal is a punishment to the shareholders: Well, not to the billionaire and millionaires who don't need the money but definitely to the pension funds that invested in Meta.

      Or, the deal is protection money so no-one goes to prison and the criminals can go to work and continue to 'care' for the victims who survived the neglect and 'd

  • Don't we get a payout, too?

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