Meta agreed to settle the teen addiction case that state attorneys general filed in 2023 for as much as $18B, per court filings and a post on its blog. Teens on Instagram and Facebook would get a two-hour daily cap that only a parent can lift, a default block on the apps overnight from midnight to 6 a.m., and no push notifications outside safety alerts between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. More than $5B of the payout hinges on YouTube and TikTok each putting up roughly $5B and adopting comparable limits, and if they do, the daily cap tightens to an hour. The money is split among 47 states, DC, and several US territories, though the federal judge hasn’t approved any of it yet. Trial had been running since August 18, and the deal means Mark Zuckerberg won’t take the stand.
