Meta agreed to pay approximately $18 billion to settle a federal lawsuit brought by 47 states and Washington D.C., alleging that Instagram and Facebook deliberately designed addictive features harmful to adolescent mental health. The settlement imposes strict restrictions on users aged 13 to 17: default daily limit of two hours, nighttime blocking between midnight and 6 a.m., mandatory pauses after 15, 60, or 90 minutes of continuous scrolling, and notification blocks during school hours. Meta will pay a guaranteed $12.7 billion but will withhold $5.3 billion unless TikTok and YouTube adopt comparable safety measures for young users.
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