NJ to receive $565M+ from Facebook owner over teen addiction claims

Facebook’s owner agreed to pay New Jersey more than $565 million as part of a landmark settlement resolving claims by 47 states, the District of Columbia, and some U.S. territories who charged the tech giant violated child privacy and intentionally built addictive features that exposed young users to mental harms.

As part of the settlement agreement, which does not carry an admission of guilt and must still be approved by the courts, tech giant Meta agreed to institute new limits like daily caps on underage users’ social media activity, subject its platforms to independent auditing, and limit the discoverability of teens’ accounts, among other things.

“As a parent, protecting your kids is always your North Star, and this agreement achieves critical protections for our children today,” New Jersey Attorney General Jen Davenport said in a statement Wednesday.

Meta agreed to pay the states and others who sued a combined $17.1 billion. New Jersey, which was among the first states to sue Meta, will receive between $525 million and $752 from a portion of the settlement covering the firm’s use of addictive features and its minimization of their harms.

New Jersey will also receive $20.3 million over privacy claims related to Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct firm that improperly acquired access to the private data of millions of Facebook users while aiding President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

In total, Meta agreed to pay $459.3 million to plaintiffs to resolve claims stemming from Cambridge Analytica, plus $75 million for litigation costs.

The settlement agreement requires Facebook to erect an array of new limits on teens’ social media use.

Those include provisions to block teens’ access to social media platforms between midnight and 6 a.m. and others to limit push notifications from the platforms between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The settlement also requires the tech firm limit teens’ access to its platforms during school hours and regularly present teen users with the option to switch to a non-personalized feed.

The agreement requires Meta to cap teens’ daily use to two hours across all its platforms, which include Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, with periodic notifications to pause after 60 and 90 minutes of cumulative use in a given day.

“Today’s settlement is a major victory for New Jersey families. Big Tech is finally being held accountable for the harm it is causing, especially to our children’s mental health and safety. More important, parents and teens will finally get some relief, including groundbreaking new safety features to protect kids online,” said Gov. Mikie Sherrill. “But here in New Jersey, we won’t stop fighting until all of the Big Tech companies follow suit.”

Many of the settlement’s restrictions mirror New Jersey statute that Sherrill signed into law earlier this month.

In an unsigned statement, Meta said teens’ safety is paramount for its platforms but warned the changes may be less impactful if younger users migrate to other social media platforms not subject to the settlement’s provisions.

“We know that when teens are restricted on one app, they simply move to another,” it said in the statement. “For meaningful progress to happen, we urge TikTok and YouTube to join us and state attorneys general in adopting this new standard, to ensure teens use social media in a healthy and responsible way.”

Other parts of the settlement require Meta to block teens from seeing like counts, limit unrelated adults’ ability to find their accounts, and step up its own age verification efforts.