Meta to pay up to $18 billion and add teen safety limits in states lawsuit settlement

Meta has agreed to pay up to about $17 billion to $18 billion and to impose new restrictions on Facebook and Instagram for teenagers in order to settle a major lawsuit brought by dozens of U.S. states over claims that its platforms were designed to keep young users hooked and harmed children’s mental health. The deal, one of the largest of its kind, is meant to fund youth online safety efforts and will require changes such as daily time limits, overnight blocks, and tighter controls on notifications and age checks for teen accounts. The settlement matters because it could reshape how one of the world’s biggest social media companies treats underage users and sets a precedent for how states address alleged harms from addictive platform design.