The last time a hugely profitable American industry got sued by the government for engineering an addictive product and marketing it to kids, the number was $206 billion, and it took the tobacco industry 25 years to pay it off. This time, it’s social media and the number is $18 billion.
But now questions remain about whether a settlement like this can actually change anything, or if it just buys the industry more time.
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On Wednesday, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion and rebuild how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram. The agreement settled a lawsuit from nearly every state in the country accusing the company of designing its apps to be compulsively addictive to kids and hiding what it knew about the harm.
In a 2024 New York Times opinion piece, former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy made an explicit comparison to the tobacco industry’s playbook, calling on Congress to slap cigarette-style warning labels on social media.
What changes is Meta making?
Within the settlement, Meta agreed to a cavalcade of changes to how it operates its social media platforms. These include how teens can access the app and how the apps interact with teens once logged on.
The company said it was adding new measures to better identify and remove users under 13. Meta said it would also use those same measures to help identify users between 13 and 17, who are required to use the company’s teen accounts. It didn’t say what those measures were, and social media companies in the past have had trouble successfully identifying underage users.
Users between 13 and 17 have already had to use teen-specific accounts since 2024, but Meta has included new restrictions in the settlement. These accounts are now blocked from using the app from midnight to 6 a.m., which Meta calls Night Mode. The company said its platforms’ direct messaging feature is excluded from Night Mode.
There’s also School Mode, which automatically blocks push notifications, except for direct messages and safety alerts, between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Teen accounts now feature a two-hour daily limit across all of Meta’s social media platforms, meaning if a child uses Facebook for 30 minutes and then Instagram for 90, they get locked out. The company said parents have control over this feature.
Teens can also choose to use a non-algorithmic feed instead of having Meta use their data to select posts to show them. Parents can also adjust their child’s default feed options.
Meta said if other platforms, like YouTube or TikTok, develop stricter guidelines on their own, Meta may strengthen its own.
Besides the additions to the teen accounts, Meta is also changing how it responds to complaints about harmful content. The company said it has made it easier for teens to report concerning posts and is working to respond more quickly.
Won’t kids just go to a different app?
In Meta’s announcement of the changes, the company’s chief legal officer, C.J. Mahoney, said he was proud of the updates but that they could only work if others in the industry did too.
“Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution,” Mahoney said. “We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework, right away. Its success depends on all other social media platforms following Meta’s lead.”
The settlement’s full payout also depends on other companies’ actions. Over the next 10 years, states that sued Meta will receive 70% of the $18 billion settlement, or about $12.7 billion, according to the company. The remaining 30% will be released only if YouTube and TikTok implement a one-hour daily limit, a mode similar to Meta’s Night Mode and age assurance measures. YouTube and TikTok would also have to pay an amount matching the 30% figure equally.
But just because Meta changed its rules doesn’t mean kids will follow them. In Australia, which was the first country in the world to ban social media for kids under 16, 8 out of 10 kids were still getting on the apps, according to the country’s internet regulator.
Can legislation help the situation?
While Meta pushes for the industry to make changes, federal and state lawmakers are carving their own paths.
New York is set to become the first state in the country to limit algorithmically-created social media features for minors. In late July, the state published the final rules for its Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for Kids Act, or SAFE, which takes effect on Jan. 25.
Other states have also tried to implement safety restrictions on social media companies but have hit legal roadblocks. In 2024, Minnesota passed a law that would’ve required social media companies to publicly explain how their algorithm weighs content and user preferences. But NetChoice, a group that advocates for free expression and enterprise on the internet, sued the state, stopping the law from taking effect.
A year later, the state passed a law that would’ve required a prominent mental health warning to pop up every time a user opened some social media platforms. The law would’ve gone into effect July 1, but NetChoice sued the state, arguing it violated the First Amendment.
The state passed a third law targeting social media platforms earlier this year. The law requires children 16 and younger to get parental consent before creating a social media account. The law also bans infinite scrolling, autoplay video and push notifications for children’s accounts.
NetChoice urged Gov. Tim Walz to veto the bill, saying this bill, like the other bill the group sued over, violated the First Amendment.
Other states, like Texas’ SCOPE Act, have tried to hold social media companies accountable for the content posted by their users, but Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act prohibits states from enacting laws that would hold companies liable for users’ posts.
In December 2025, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., proposed the Sunset Section 230 Act, which would repeal Section 230 two years after passage. But the bill has gone nowhere in the Senate.
