Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion and introduce sweeping new safeguards for teenagers on Instagram and Facebook, bringing an unexpectedly early end to a landmark US lawsuit over allegations that the company designed its platforms to keep children and young people hooked.

The settlement, reached Wednesday between Meta and attorneys general from dozens of US states, brings to a close a federal trial in Oakland, California, that had been expected to continue for several weeks.

California and 28 other states accused Meta of deliberately developing features that encouraged compulsive use among children and teenagers, while exposing them to harmful content and contributing to serious mental-health problems, including anxiety, depression and suicidal behavior.

The states also alleged that Meta collected personal information from children under 13 without obtaining the required parental consent, in violation of federal and state laws.

Meta has denied the allegations and admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

Under the agreement, Meta will introduce a series of changes intended to reduce teenagers' use of its platforms and limit their exposure to potentially harmful content.

New restrictions for teenage users

One of the most significant measures will be a default two-hour daily limit for teenagers using Facebook and Instagram. The limit will apply across both platforms and will require parental permission to override.

Meta will also introduce a nationwide overnight restriction known as Night Mode, which will prevent teenagers from accessing, posting or viewing content between midnight and 6 a.m.

Notifications will largely be muted during school hours, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., although direct messages and security-related alerts will remain available.

Teenagers will also receive more frequent reminders about how long they have been using the platforms, while the agreement includes restrictions on certain cosmetic and plastic-surgery-related filters.

Other measures include stronger age-verification systems, expanded parental controls and greater access to non-personalized feeds, reducing the extent to which algorithmically recommended content dominates teenagers' experiences.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta described the agreement as a major victory for children and their families.

“Today, we have secured a settlement with Meta that will make social media less dangerous for our kids,” Bonta said, adding that the company had agreed to make significant changes within months.

States could receive up to $18 billion

The financial terms of the agreement could require Meta to pay as much as $18 billion over 10 years, subject to court approval and other conditions.

California is expected to receive between $1.5 billion and $2.1 billion, while Colorado could receive about $615 million. The funds will be distributed among participating states under the terms of the agreement.

The settlement is considerably larger than many previous legal settlements involving social media companies and represents a major financial and regulatory setback for Meta.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said the agreement provided protections that went beyond what courts were likely to order through litigation.

“The focus of this case was to protect our kids,” Weiser said.

Meta calls for rivals to follow suit

Meta's chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney, said the company believes the new framework will only be effective if other major social media platforms introduce similar protections.

Teenagers, he noted, move between multiple applications, meaning restrictions on Instagram and Facebook alone could have limited impact.

Meta has therefore called on TikTok, Snap and YouTube to adopt comparable measures.

“Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution,” Mahoney said.

The company has argued that coordinated action across the industry is necessary to prevent young users from simply moving to competing services when restrictions are imposed on one platform.

Trial ends after just four days

The settlement came only days after the trial began in federal court in Oakland.

The case had been expected to feature dozens of witnesses and last several weeks. Instead, proceedings lasted just four days before the two sides reached an agreement.

The states had sought to demonstrate that Meta knew its products could cause harm to young users but continued to prioritize engagement and growth.

They argued that features such as recommendation algorithms, notifications and endless scrolling were deliberately designed to encourage prolonged use.

Meta strongly disputed those claims, maintaining that it has invested heavily in measures designed to protect young users.

Rather than allowing the jury to decide the case, the company and the states agreed to settle.

Part of a much broader legal battle

The agreement comes as Meta and other major social media companies face thousands of lawsuits across the United States.

Families, individual users, school districts and state officials have accused Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap of contributing to a range of problems involving children and teenagers, including addiction, mental-health problems and exposure to dangerous content.

Meta and YouTube already lost the first major social-media addiction case to reach trial earlier this year. A jury ordered the companies to pay $6 million to a young woman who alleged that their platforms had contributed to serious mental-health problems.

TikTok and Snap have also faced similar litigation, with some cases being settled before reaching trial.

Meta suffered another major legal defeat in New Mexico, where a separate case brought by the state attorney general resulted in an order requiring the company to pay nearly $1 billion over allegations concerning child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

Debate over social media and children continues

The settlement is likely to intensify the debate over how social media platforms should be regulated and how much responsibility technology companies should bear for the experiences of young users.

Supporters of the agreement say restrictions on screen time, nighttime access and notifications could help reduce compulsive use and give parents greater control.

Critics, however, argue that time limits alone cannot address the deeper problems associated with social media. They point to recommendation algorithms, engagement-based business models and the rapid spread of harmful content as issues that require more fundamental changes.

The settlement does not completely eliminate algorithmic recommendations, meaning that many of the mechanisms at the center of the states' allegations will remain in place.

For Meta, the agreement avoids the uncertainty and potentially much greater financial exposure of a prolonged trial. But it also marks a significant shift: the company has agreed to alter some of the basic features through which millions of teenagers interact with its platforms.

The agreement could ultimately prove to be a turning point for the wider social media industry. If TikTok, YouTube and Snap adopt similar safeguards, the settlement could establish a new standard for how technology companies design and operate platforms used by children and teenagers across the United States. (ILKHA)