By The Seattle Medium
Washington state could receive nearly $339 million as part of a landmark $17.1 billion multistate settlement with Meta Platforms that would also require sweeping changes to how Instagram and Facebook operate for children and teenagers, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown announced Wednesday.
The agreement, which is subject to court approval, resolves litigation alleging that Meta designed its social media platforms with addictive features, exposed young users to mental health risks, improperly collected data from children under 13 without parental consent and misled the public about the safety of its platforms.
Under the settlement, Washington is guaranteed $237 million and could receive nearly $339 million over the next 10 years. The additional money is contingent on states reaching similar agreements with other major social media companies.
The agreement would require Meta to impose daily usage limits for teens, restrict overnight access, disable most notifications during school hours, strengthen age verification and parental controls, and provide additional protections against potentially harmful content. The settlement generally defines teen users as those ages 13 through 17.
“Let me say to the young people of Washington state: This agreement shows that your health and safety is more important than Meta’s profits,” Brown said. “Ever since taking office, I’ve been fighting to protect Washington children online. Now, through the hard work of state attorneys general across the country, including our own consumer protection team, we’ve delivered a transformative settlement that will help break compulsive screen use and allow kids across our state to live healthier lives, with more time for sleep, learning, and building social skills.”
The settlement follows a nationwide investigation launched in 2021 into social media companies and their practices involving children and teenagers. Attorneys general alleged that Meta designed features on Instagram to encourage compulsive use among children while internally documenting resulting mental health harms and failing to adequately warn parents.
Forty-eight states ultimately sued Meta individually or as part of consolidated federal litigation. The agreement resolves claims brought by 47 other states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Among the most significant changes for families are new restrictions on how long children and teenagers can use Instagram and Facebook.
For the first five years, Meta would impose a combined two-hour daily limit on covered use of Instagram and Facebook by young users. The platforms would also be required to interrupt continuous scrolling with notices and “Productive Pauses,” beginning after 15 minutes of continuous use and again after users reach 60 and 90 minutes of cumulative use.
If Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube eventually adopt comparable terms under conditions outlined in the settlement, the daily limit on each Meta platform would drop to 60 minutes for 10 years.
The agreement also calls for nighttime restrictions. Teen users would generally be unable to access most Instagram and Facebook features between midnight and 6 a.m., although certain functions, including messaging and settings, would remain available.
Meta would also be required to eliminate most push notifications on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the school year and restrict notifications overnight.
Another major component of the agreement addresses age verification. Meta would be required to establish stronger age-assurance measures designed to more effectively identify users who are teenagers or younger than 13. The methods would undergo independent testing and would have to evolve as age-verification technology improves.
The settlement also requires stronger protections against content involving bullying, eating disorders, suicide and self-harm, along with more user-friendly parental controls.
Certain social-comparison features would also be restricted, including some beauty filters and visible “like” counts that the states say can negatively affect the mental health of children and teenagers.
Teenagers would also have the option of viewing a non-personalized feed displaying content from accounts they follow or have friended in reverse chronological order instead of relying on an algorithmically personalized feed.
The implementation and effectiveness of the required safety features would be subject to independent review and oversight by the states.
The changes accomplish several of the goals Brown pursued unsuccessfully through proposed state legislation over the past two years aimed at restricting addictive social media feeds for children. According to the Attorney General’s Office, some provisions of the settlement go further than the proposed legislation, including daily time limits, stronger measures intended to prevent underage children from opening accounts and expanded parental controls.
Brown acknowledged that concerns surrounding youth social media use extend beyond Meta and credited the company with becoming the first major platform to reach a comprehensive agreement with the states over youth safety.
The settlement would direct Washington’s share of the money to the Attorney General’s Office. A portion would pay legal costs and support continued enforcement of state consumer protection laws, while funding would also be available for programs addressing the mental health effects of social media use among young people.
The agreement allows settlement money to support initiatives including youth mental health services, after-school and summer programs, digital wellness education, outdoor activities, crisis intervention and digital literacy programs, depending on state law and how participating attorneys general allocate the funds.
The settlement also resolves separate state claims involving Meta’s sharing of nonpublic Facebook user information with third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, in the years leading up to the 2016 election. Washington will receive an additional $10.2 million through that portion of the resolution, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
The settlement includes 46 other states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.
If approved by the court, the agreement would establish requirements governing Instagram and Facebook for as long as a decade while subjecting Meta’s implementation of the youth safety measures to independent assessment and state oversight.
For Washington families, the settlement could ultimately mean both hundreds of millions of dollars flowing to the state and significant changes to the social media platforms that have become a regular part of many young people’s lives.
