“This hard-fought settlement provides important protections for children on Meta’s platforms, Instagram and Facebook, and empowers parents with tools to help address the negative impacts of social media use on children,” said Maine’s attorney general.
Maine expects to receive at least $56 million from a multistate settlement with Meta, which has agreed to pay $17.1 billion to resolve allegations of social media harm to children on its Facebook and Instagram platforms.
The settlement, subject to court approval, marks the largest consumer protection settlement in history outside the so-called Big Tobacco settlements of the 1990s, according to Maine Attorney General Aaron R. Frey.
The settlement requires Meta to implement a series of safety features, including introducing daily time limits and "productive pauses” for children for most content and "nighttime blocks” restricting children’s access from midnight to 6 a.m.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based tech giant is led by Mark Zuckerberg, the company's founder, chairman and CEO.
The limits are to remain in effect for five years, though if Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube adopt comparable terms, the daily limit on each platform will drop to 60 minutes for 10 years.
'Important protections'
Frey announced Maine’s expected share of the settlement amount on Wednesday.
“This hard-fought settlement provides important protections for children on Meta’s platforms, Instagram and Facebook, and empowers parents with tools to help address the negative impacts of social media use on children,” Frey said.
Frey noted that while the settlement is an important step, efforts to make social media safer for children must extend across the entire industry.
“We will continue to work with our multistate partners to push for comprehensive changes that prioritize the safety and welfare of children over profit,” he said.
