Meta to pay $17 billion, ending US states' lawsuit over harm to teens

Meta has reached a settlement with attorneys general from 47 US states, agreeing to pay $17 billion and implement a series of new child-safety measures on Facebook and Instagram. The deal ends a trial in which the company faced accusations of deliberately designing addictive features harmful to young users' mental health.

The lawsuit was originally filed in 2023 by 29 states, including California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, with the trial taking place this week in federal court in California under US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. The settlement cuts the trial short before CEO Mark Zuckerberg was due to testify before a jury.

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said the settlement is worth $353 million to his state alone, calling it one of the largest in the history of state consumer protection cases. He said Meta had knowingly misled the public for years about the addictive and harmful design of its platforms.

Allegations and new restrictions

The lawsuit also accused Meta of collecting data on children under 13 without parental consent, in violation of federal law. Under the settlement, Meta will introduce daily time limits and usage pauses for young users, stop sending push notifications during school hours on weekdays, and add stronger age-verification tools along with content controls aimed at reducing exposure to bullying, eating-disorder material and self-harm content. Parental controls will also be strengthened, and features that encourage social comparison, such as visible “like” counts, will be limited.

The case grew out of a bipartisan investigation led by attorneys general from several states, prompted by 2021 Wall Street Journal reporting on Instagram's harmful effects on teen mental health, particularly among girls. Former Meta engineering director Arturo Béjar testified that the company consistently prioritized profit over user safety.

The $17 billion settlement represents a small fraction of Meta's 2025 revenue of $201 billion, though the company had argued in court filings that potential penalties could theoretically have reached as much as $1.4 trillion.