The $18 Billion Meta Settlement: What It Means for Youth Safety and Digital Well-Being

Meta, the company that makes Facebook and Instagram, has reached a landmark settlement with attorneys general representing 47 states, Washington, DC, and several US territories. The settlement addresses concerns that the design of its platforms contributed to unhealthy and addictive patterns of use among young people. It’s the largest settlement of its kind to date.  

It comes on the heels of a New Mexico judge ordering Meta to pay $567 million into a public-health abatement fund after finding that the company’s social media platforms contributed to harms experienced by children and adolescents in the state. That ruling follows an earlier judgment requiring Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties for violating New Mexico’s unfair practices law. (Meta plans to appeal these, and New Mexico is not party to this latest Meta settlement.)  

And the New Mexico decisions follow a California jury finding Meta and Google negligent for designing social media platforms in ways that addicted child users, marking the first jury verdict in the wave of lawsuits alleging that Big Tech knowingly created harmful, addictive products.  

More suits are under way, but again, this latest settlement is significantly larger than its precursors, and it’s not going to be appealed. So, it’s worth analysis and discussion. We’ll walk through what the settlement makes Meta (and possibly other companies) do, what the attorneys general or their states get to spend their settlement dollars on, how those dollars have the potential to support or complement your Second Step^® portfolio, and what more work still needs to be done to advocate students’ digital well-being.

How much is the settlement?

Participating states will receive $12.7 billion over a decade. The three states that are not participating are Texas, Florida, and New Mexico because they have separate litigation, including the one from New Mexico mentioned above.  

The remaining $5.3 billion (30%) will be released if and only if YouTube and TikTok implement a one-hour daily limit for teens, night mode, age assurance measures, and pay an amount matching the 30% figure, with half of the remaining funds tied to YouTube’s payment and half tied to TikTok’s.

What does Meta have to do?

Meta needs to modify its platform in a number of ways to help better protect young people. Design reforms for teens include:

• 2-hour daily limit (parent approval required to disable)
• Night mode: Apps blocked from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m.
• School mode: Notifications muted from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Usage prompts: Prompts given at 15, 60, and 90 minutes
• Feed controls: Optional non-algorithmic feed
• Autoplay controls: Autoplay can be disabled
• Hidden likes: Enabled by default
• Filter restrictions: Blocks cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters
• Age assurance: Stronger age verification and teen protections
• Age-appropriate content: Enhanced content restrictions
• Stranger protections: Private defaults and restricted contact
• Reporting and safety: Easier reporting and ongoing harm reduction
• Parental controls: Expanded supervision, alerts, and usage insights

What can the state attorneys general or their states spend their settlement dollars on?

Among other things, the settlement explicitly authorizes states to use settlement money for:

• Digital wellness public education funds
• Digital literacy counselors
• Phone-free school zones
• Youth mental health programming
• School grants
• Public education efforts  

How does the settlement help with child sexual abuse prevention?

The settlement focuses on reforming tech design to prevent child sexual abuse. It requires stronger tech protections against sexual exploitation, grooming, suspicious adult accounts, sextortion, and inappropriate interactions with children. The platform is meant to put in safeguards, such as reduced discoverability, teen privacy defaults, warnings, and parent alerts.  

But the settlement does not speak to directly teaching children the knowledge and skills needed to recognize grooming, maintain body safety, disclose abuse, and seek help. Age-appropriate programs like the Second Step® Child Protection Unit serve in critical complement to those tech design reforms.  

What’s missing in the settlement regarding child sexual abuse prevention?

The platform protections are substantial, but the settlement addresses prevention primarily through platform design rather than through direct education and skill-building.  

The agreement is less focused on and does not cover:

• School-based prevention education
• Body safety instruction
• Recognizing grooming tactics
• Disclosure and reporting skills
• Educator training

Those are areas where school-based programs like the Second Step Child Protection Unit remain highly relevant. The Child Protection Unit addresses youth knowledge and skills that are beneficial to prevention both in online and offline settings.  

Consider Camp Fire Alaska’s recent share-out about their Second Step Child Protection Unit implementation:

“The impact was evident in both youth engagement and staff confidence. The curriculum gave staff tools to navigate conversations that can sometimes feel difficult, while helping youth build knowledge and skills in a safe, supportive environment. . . .

“Youth responses were especially meaningful. One staff member shared, ‘On the very last day, one kiddo told me that when we sit down to do these lessons, “It's my favorite!”’ Another recalled, ‘At the end of the curriculum, I thanked the youth for participating, even when the topics were hard. They all said they actually enjoyed it. One youth who usually had the hardest time sitting through the lessons said, “Yeah, this is really important.”’”

Through the Child Protection Unit, Camp Fire Alaska was able to build on its existing commitment to youth safety by creating meaningful opportunities for learning and connection.  

How might the settlement support youth digital well-being?

The settlement is really focused more on design features for protection, which certainly can help with digital well-being. But it does not prepare youth for digital experiences. The settlement does not mandate funding for schools—no automatic funds for school-based human skills instruction, professional development, implementation support, and so on. Rather, it allows states to spend settlement money on programs that support digital wellness and related efforts, which is to say a state could choose to allocate dollars for Second Step programs, especially the Digital Well-Being specialized unit.  

Because states have discretion on whether to spend on youth digital well-being, it’s up to us all to advocate that these settlement funds go to these efforts.  

Committee for Children, the nonprofit creator of Second Step programs, is part of Fund IRL, which is “a coalition working to ensure any payouts from current social media lawsuits help fund programs and services that promote youth well-being and healthy development.” We also stand at the ready to problem-solve with you to help turn your state’s settlement dollars into digital well-being opportunities in the classroom. Reach out to us at advocacy@cfchildren.org if you want to work together to engage your state attorney general on using these funds for school-based human skill-building.  

Conclusion

This settlement, the largest of its kind, is primarily directed toward platform-level reforms, but it repeatedly recognizes the need for youth wellness, digital literacy, healthy technology use, and prevention of sexual exploitation.

Committee for Children’s Second Step family of programs is highly aligned with the purposes of the settlement. Both the Child Protection Unit and the Digital Well-Being specialized unit complement the settlement’s required design reforms, and the Digital Well-Being unit is especially conducive to support from the settlement because it falls within the settlement spending categories.

Request a free consultation to learn more about how Second Step programs can support your students’ well-being both online and offline.

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