by Violet Fujimoto ‘27

Meta (formally called Facebook) has agreed to make big changes to its social media platforms, implementing numerous restrictions for teens. The company has been accused in multiple lawsuits over the past two years of purposefully designing its platforms to be addictive to children and adolescents and misleading the public about their safety. The settlement that is causing these changes involves Meta and a coalition of state attorney generals centering on allegations regarding the correlation between social media usage and decline in children’s mental health. This also requires that Meta has to pay up to $18 billion over the next decade to California and 28 other states involved in the trial. California may receive up to $2.1 billion, according to California Attorney Rob Bonta. 

“We have secured a settlement with Meta that will make social media less dangerous for our kids and make a world of a difference for children and their families,” said Bonta. “Meta has agreed to make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm from its platforms — and will do it within months.”

Users under 18 will automatically be assigned a teen account, featuring various restrictions. These include time limits, removing reaction statistics on posts, disabling notifications during school, parent supervision features, and stronger age verification technology. These changes will be fully implemented by February, excluding an effective age assurance system, which will take up to a year. The goal of these restrictions is to protect teens due to the correlation between social media usage and adolescent mental health. Teen accounts will have a “night mode” to  prevent teens from accessing their feed, stories, or reels between 12 and 6 a.m. During school hours, notifications will be muted. A two-hour time limit will be enforced, but Meta has agreed to lower the time limit to one hour if other platforms do so. 

The removal of reaction statistics and filters is aimed to hinder social comparison among adolescents. Social media has been shown to decrease self esteem and encourage comparison among peers, which is one of the major issues that the lawsuit is targeting. The lawsuit that preceded this decision and is directly related to these new restrictions is the K.G.M. v. Meta and Youtube trial, which represented 2,000 other cases about the damages Meta causes to young people. Meta was found liable for the mental health issues of K.G.M, or Kaley, experienced as a direct result of social media usage and addiction. This case was a bellwether trial, meaning it would set an example for possibly other similar lawsuits. 

These lawsuits were brought by families whose children committed suicide due to mental health, body dysmorphia, and low self esteem. To help reduce the possible ramifications of social media, parents will now have the ability to monitor and change the settings of the teen account if both accounts agree to the controls. Supervising parent accounts can receive notifications about the time their child spends on the app, when an adult account messages them for the first time, or if the teen account searches for key words such as suicide or self harm. 

Under the new settlement, Meta is required to implement stronger age assurance technology to prevent users under 13 from creating an account. This will ensure that 13-17 year olds have age appropriate versions of their apps. Identification or facial recognition systems will be used to make sure teens are not creating regular accounts or faking their age. If an existing account is suspected of being underage, it will be deactivated. In order to prevent the account from being deleted, the account user will have to provide proof of their age through Meta’s age verification process.