Colorado to get $615 million in settlement over youth Facebook, Instagram addiction case

The tech giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, agreed Wednesday to pay over $17 billion in a nationwide settlement in a case centered on youth social media addiction. The deal includes over $615 million over nine years for Colorado, which was one of 51 states and territories to sue the company in 2023.

“The relief we are getting in this settlement is very meaningful and well beyond what any court has ordered or is likely to order,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat, said in a statement. “The focus of this case was to protect our kids — stopping notifications and alerts at night and when they are in school, encouraging them to take breaks from social media, protecting them against harmful features, implementing age assurance technology, and more. Today’s action is an important step forward and I welcome Meta’s decision to accept responsibility and to collaborate with the multistate coalition to protect kids who deserve better.”

The action ends a federal trial in the U.S. Northern District of California that began last week, where Colorado and a handful of other states argued that Meta intentionally designed its social media apps to be addictive to children and knew about those risks without telling the public. The states also alleged that Meta routinely collected data on children younger than 13 without their parents’ consent, a violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Colorado will get an additional $11.4 million for those data privacy claims.

Meta denies the allegations in the lawsuit.

The settlement requires Meta to make certain changes to its products, including daily limits for children, limited app notifications during typical school hours and stronger age verification measures. Teens will also be able to opt into a non-algorithmic social media feed and turn off auto-play features. Meta will ban image filters for teens that replicate cosmetic surgery. Likes and reactions to posts will be invisible to younger users.

“The framework we’ve negotiated will empower parents to easily manage how their children access our platforms,” C.J. Mahoney, Meta’s chief legal officer, said in a statement. “Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution. We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework, right away.”

The Colorado money will go “directly to protecting and restoring the mental health and safety of Colorado children,” according to Weiser’s office. The settlement says the money can pay for things like crisis intervention services, after school programs, outdoor activities, digital literacy counselors and youth mental health programming.

The settlement must still be approved by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.