Meta Platforms will pay up to $18 billion over the next decade and impose sweeping restrictions on how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram, under a landmark settlement with nearly all US states resolving claims that the company deliberately designed its platforms to addict children.

The agreement, announced Wednesday and approved the same day by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, ends a federal trial that began August 18 over allegations Meta’s products harmed children and that the company misled the public about their safety.

The settlement is one of the largest consumer protection resolutions in American history and could serve as a template for resolving thousands of similar lawsuits still pending against Meta and other social media companies.

How Much Each State Gets

Meta agreed to maximum payments of approximately $16.7 billion to 47 US states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Texas reached a separate settlement worth more than $1 billion.

The largest individual state payouts include:

  • California: up to $2.2 billion
  • New York: up to $1.1 billion

Some states will deposit funds into general accounts while others have committed to earmarking portions specifically for children’s mental health programs.

The total guaranteed payment is approximately $12.7 billion, with an additional $5 billion contingent on whether Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube adopt similar child protection measures. If those platforms implement comparable restrictions, Meta pays the full $18 billion.

Four states — California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey — had been expected to seek close to $200 billion in civil penalties before the settlement was reached.

What Meta Must Now Do

Under the settlement terms, Meta must within the next decade:

  • Limit teen usage of Facebook and Instagram to two hours per day
  • Block all usage from midnight to 6 a.m. for teenagers, absent parental consent
  • Disable most push notifications to teenage users during school hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • Enhance age-verification measures to prevent children from accessing age-restricted content
  • Pay $459 million separately to resolve states’ privacy claims related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal

The settlement does not require Meta to abandon personalized recommendations or targeted advertising — two features that critics say are central to the addiction problem. It also does not address content Meta’s own researchers found particularly harmful to body image, especially among teenage girls.

What the Trial Was About

The trial that this settlement ended centered on claims by California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey that Meta violated state consumer protection laws through its platform design. Twenty-nine additional states alleged Meta violated the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by knowingly collecting personal data from children without parental consent and using that data to train generative AI.

Meta had argued throughout the proceedings that “social media addiction” was not a recognized psychiatric condition and that it could not have misled consumers about something that did not officially exist as a diagnosis.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri had begun testifying before the settlement was announced. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had been expected to take the stand before the deal was struck.

Prior Verdicts Against Meta

The settlement comes amid a wave of courtroom losses for Meta over its treatment of young users:

  • A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million and implement youth safety measures, in addition to $375 million a jury ordered in the same case in March
  • A Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google negligent in platform design and ordered them to pay $6 million to a 20-year-old woman who said she became addicted to Instagram and YouTube as a child
  • Meta and Google have said they will appeal those verdicts

States That Did Not Settle

Not all states joined Wednesday’s agreement. Florida and New Mexico remained outside the settlement.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said his state plans to continue litigating. “The payouts to the states are peanuts compared to the profound harms Meta’s profit-driven addictive features have inflicted on our children,” he said. “We’ll see them at trial.”

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez said the settlement “represents real progress” but missed some protections his own litigation had produced, including safeguards against adults targeting children and banning sexualized AI chatbot interactions with minors.

What This Means for Individual Lawsuits

The state settlement does not resolve the thousands of individual lawsuits filed by children, parents, school districts, and municipalities against Meta. Judge Gonzalez Rogers oversees many of those cases in federal court in Oakland.

If your child suffered anxiety, depression, eating disorders, self-harm, or suicidal ideation that you believe is connected to Instagram or Facebook use, individual legal claims are still actively being pursued. The state settlement could increase pressure on Meta to resolve individual cases as well.

Meta’s Response

Meta denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. The $18 billion total represents approximately three to four months of profit for the company.

“Ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta,” the company said in a statement. “We want to get this right for parents and teens.”

Meta shares rose on the news, closing up 1.1% on Wednesday.

InjuryWatch News will continue tracking the thousands of individual lawsuits still pending against Meta and other social media companies.