Meta settlement brings Massachusetts up to $516 million, new limits for teens

By Katie Castellani

Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced Wednesday that she and a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general reached a $17.1 billion settlement with Meta — including a guarantee of approximately $366 million for Massachusetts — to resolve claims the social media giant created and ran its platforms in a way that harmed young people and violated state consumer protection laws. 

“As a mom and as Attorney General, I know that young people deserve to grow up in a world where they can benefit from technology without being exploited by it. We took on Meta because the company chose to put profits ahead of the wellbeing of young people,” Campbell said in a press release. “This settlement is about more than a financial penalty – it’s about changing the way Big Tech does business. We secured meaningful, long-term changes to Meta’s products and practices, while delivering real resources to Massachusetts. Today is an important step forward, but for our kids and their futures, it’s only the first step.”

The settlement, which Campbell’s office said is the largest state consumer protection win in history outside the “Big Tobacco” settlements in the 1990s, is subject to court approval. If approved, Massachusetts could get up to $516 million from Meta, including a guaranteed $366 million over the next decade. Those funds would resolve claims of Facebook’s failure to protect consumers’ private information from mishandling by Cambridge Analytica and Facebook’s alleged continued misrepresentation to users. 

Campbell’s office also said the funding would go toward rectifying harms young people in Massachusetts have faced as a result of social media, including: efforts to expand youth crisis intervention and mental health services; helping after-school, summer and outdoor programs; boosting digital wellness and literacy; supporting phone-free school efforts; and training medical providers on social media use and body dysmorphia. Some of the funds would also go to the state General Fund. 

The settlement would bar users under 13 from using Instagram or Facebook and those aged 13 to 18 would have certain account protections added over the next four to six months. These protections include a daily time limit of 120 minutes across Instagram and Facebook, blocking teen user access between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. as well as barring notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., and silenced notifications during typical school hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Under the settlement, Meta would also be required to implement an “enhanced age assurance framework” to identify users under 13 and those between the ages of 13 and 18 “with a high level of accuracy,” according to Campbell’s office. That framework wouldn’t require users to submit government identification or “other sensitive information” for age verification. 

Teens would also notice several changes to the platforms including prompts that show options to turn off “autoplay” and personalized algorithmic feed features. Campbell’s office said there will be “prominent” pauses and breaks after 15 minutes of continuous use along with breaks at 60 minutes and 90 minutes of cumulative use. Teens can disable like counts and other counts of social reactions and disable filters that imitate cosmetic surgery. 

Also, teens’ accounts on Meta platforms would be defaulted to private and adults who a “teen does not affirmatively connect to” would be restricted from messaging them or seeing their accounts, according to Campbell’s office. Parents could enable protective settings and get information on their teens’ time spent on platforms, content searches and contact with adult users. 

The settlement would bring the state’s years-long litigation against Meta to a close. In 2023, Campbell sued Meta alleging Meta violated state law “by purposefully designing their applications to addict young users, and actively and repeatedly deceiving the public about the danger posed to young people by overuse of their products.” 

CJ Mahoney, Meta’s chief legal officer, said in a statement that the settlement’s protections will “empower parents to easily manage how their children access our platforms.” However, Mahoney said the protections work best if other platforms follow suit and issued an open letter urging TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar measures.

“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,” Mahoney said. “As a parent, I’m proud of both the work Meta has done to protect kids historically, and of this new groundbreaking agreement. But its success depends on all other social media platforms following Meta’s lead.”

The settlement comes as Beacon Hill negotiators are hashing out the details of legislation (H 5366 / S 2581) regulating social media access for kids and teens.

The House’s bill bans kids under 14 from using social media platforms and requires parental consent for users aged 14 and 15. The legislation also requires platforms to prohibit users aged 14 or 15 from accessing addictive social feeds and users of those ages could not receive social media notifications between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. As far as age verification, the bill calls on social media platforms to “implement an age assurance or verification system to determine whether a current or prospective user on the social media platform meets the age requirement.” That system would “consist of the best technology available to reasonably and accurately identify a current or prospective user’s age,” per bill text.

The Senate’s legislation skipped the social media ban the House adopted but also requires social media platforms to adopt “default” settings for minors that disable features like addictive feeds and autoplay. Also, the legislation bans notifications to minors between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. and requires platforms to offer at least one age verification method that doesn’t require users to submit biometric data or a government ID.