Attorney General Bonta Secures Transformative $17 Billion Settlement with Meta, Proposed Settlement Includes Fundamental Changes to Instagram and Facebook
oag.ca.gov
Meta must make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm from its platforms — and will do it within months. OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta, as part of a bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general, today announced a proposed settlement, which remains subject to court approval through entry of a consent judgment, resolving the Attorney General's lawsuit against Meta Platforms, Inc.

The proposed settlement critically includes strong injunctive terms designed to help protect teens from the mental health harms associated with social media use, including bans and blocks on features known to be harmful, like:

  • A default daily time limit of two hours for users under 18 that can only be lifted by a parent. If other social media platforms agree to similar terms, the daily time limit will drop to one hour.
  • A default nighttime block between midnight and 6am for users under 18 that can only be lifted by a parent. If other social media platforms agree to similar terms, the nighttime block will expand to cover 10pm to 7am.
  • Default blocks on notifications to users under 18 from 10pm to 7am and during the school day (8am to 3pm from August 15 to June 15.)
  • An enhanced mechanism for teens to report potentially harmful content and a requirement that Meta respond to 90% of those reports within six hours.
  • A ban on displaying numbers of likes or reactions to users under 18.
  • A ban on cosmetic procedure image filters for users under 18.
  • An option for users under 18 to have a non-personalized feed, meaning a feed that doesn’t use an algorithm to target them with content aimed to keep them endlessly scrolling.
  • A commitment from Meta to maintain, review, and improve existing teen content safety measures.

The company will also be required to maintain other potections. For example:

  • Meta has agreed to maintain, review, and improve existing teen content safety measures and will create enhanced parent supervision tools.
  • Meta will institute robust age assurance measures to detect users under 18, as well as measures to identify and remove kids under 13 from their platforms.
  • Meta will bring on an independent auditor with expansive access to information and resources, regular reporting, and the right to communicate concerns to the Attorneys General.
  • Finally, Meta will be subject to an injunction prohibiting it from making further false, misleading, or deceptive statements around its safety features.