Meta’s $18 billion settlement could reshape social media for young people | #childpredator | #kidsaftey | #childsaftey

The first thing that jumps out is the number.

On Wednesday, Meta reached a landmark settlement and agreed to pay up to $18 billion to 47 states, as well as the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, to settle claims that its social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, endangered children through addictive features.

Make no mistake, that is a lot of money. But as CNN’s Clare Duffy points out, “$18 billion amounts to only a fraction of the $200 billion Meta earned in revenue last year.”

Here’s the much bigger deal: Meta will make major changes to minimize the negative effects of its platforms on children and teenagers.

The New York Times’ Cecilia Kang and Eli Tan wrote, “Meta also agreed to limit how long teenagers can spend on its platforms and to bans on features that stoke mental health issues, striking at the heart of the company’s business of engagement for advertising.”

Here’s what that will look like:

Meta will limit users under 18 to two hours per day on Facebook and Instagram, block them from accessing its platforms from midnight to 6 a.m. and limit their notifications during school hours. There will also be forced breaks for kids who use Instagram and Facebook for too long in one session. Parents can change those restrictions.

There’s more.

Kids will be given the option to have a chronological feed, as opposed to an algorithmic one, and parents can set it as the default option. Parents can also choose a setting that prevents young people from seeing likes and other reactions on posts.

Ultimately, the changes are meant to curb endless scrolling, which can interrupt sleep and have other negative effects on young people’s health and well-being.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who was part of the settlement negotiations, said, “The relief we are getting in this settlement is very meaningful. Today’s action is an important step forward, and I welcome Meta’s decision to accept responsibility and to collaborate with the multistate coalition to protect kids who deserve better.”

Meanwhile, Meta’s legal chief, C.J. Mahoney, told The Wall Street Journal’s Meghan Bobrowsky, “What we have now for the first time is alignment between one of the major social-media platforms and regulators from all over the country about how to deal with this issue.”

In reality, Meta probably didn’t have much of a choice.

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The Washington Post’s Ian Duncan, Gerrit De Vynck and Miriam Waldvogel noted, “The settlement comes more than a week into a major trial in Oakland, California, where a jury and a judge were in the midst of hearing arguments from four state plaintiffs that alleged Meta’s Facebook and Instagram apps purposefully addicted children and teens, leading to anxiety and depression across a generation of youths.”

They added, “The trial was part of a wave of litigation from state governments, school districts and teens centered on Meta and other social media companies, including Google’s YouTube, TikTok and Snap. Meta has already lost two cases this year and been forced to make payments and make some changes to how its products work. The other companies have already reached some settlements.”

So the smart move for Meta was to settle.

Nora Freeman Engstrom, a law professor at Stanford University, told the New York Times, “Meta wouldn’t settle unless it sees the writing on the wall and feels really exposed.”

And The Associated Press’ Barbara Ortutay, Kelvin Chan and Kaitlyn Huamani wrote, “If approved by the court, the deal will stop an avalanche of litigation by states against Meta, although the company still faces lawsuits from individuals and school districts throughout the U.S. For the states, the settlement delivers money for mental-health programs for kids, including after-school or summer activities and digital literacy counselors.”

As far as the payout, there’s a wrinkle.

As the Times explained, “The full value of Meta’s payout depends on whether other social media companies also settle with the states and agree to financial penalties and product changes. Meta will initially pay about $12 billion. It will pay an additional $5 billion if Snap, TikTok and YouTube also settle with the states and agree to financial penalties and product changes.”

Mahoney wrote in a blog post, “This framework will only work if all our peers join us. Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industrywide solution.”

According to the Times, Snap and YouTube, which is owned by Alphabet, declined to comment, while TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A major challenge for all social media companies is verifying the ages of their users.

The New York Times’ Eli Tan reports, “Last week, OpenAI announced ‘ChatGPT for Teens,’ a new mode for the chatbot with more protections for young users, and said it tracked more than 2,000 signals to detect whether a user was under 18. As part of Wednesday’s settlement, Meta said, it will invest more in age verification technology to identify which users are teenagers and remove those who it believes are younger than 13.”

Meanwhile, The New York Times’ Ephrat Livni writes, “A Movement to Restrict Social Media for Children Has Taken Hold Globally.”

Other countries — including Denmark, Australia, Spain, Brazil, France and Britain — have tried to implement bans and restrictions on social media use for young people. But results have been spotty.

For example, Livni writes about Australia: “In December, the world’s first social media ban for young teenagers went into effect in Australia. The country undertook a sweeping governmental effort to shield children from its potential harms, blocking those under 16 from platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X and YouTube. But young people quickly found workarounds. By spring, surveys showed most parents of children under 16 who already had social media accounts before the ban — about 70 percent — said the teenagers still had access to one of the age-restricted services. In June, the government said that it would take steps to strengthen the law, acknowledging its limited effectiveness.”

For more details, check out this release from Meta: “Our Agreement With Bipartisan Attorneys General: Calling on TikTok and YouTube to Join Us in Supporting Teens.”

Karoline Leavitt, who is stepping down as White House press secretary, will sit down live with NewsNation anchor Markie Martin at 8 a.m. Eastern today on “Morning in America.” It will be Leavitt’s first TV appearance since announcing she is leaving the administration.

NewsNation says Leavitt “will discuss balancing motherhood with a demanding role in the White House, reflect on her notable tenure as the youngest Press Secretary in White House history, and address what lies ahead as she continues to serve as one of President Donald Trump’s top advisers.”

Meanwhile, Trump and the White House have yet to name a replacement for Leavitt. CBS News’ Jennifer Jacobs and Weijia Jiang reported Wednesday, “White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has been looking at potential replacements for Leavitt, but the process is ongoing with no front-runners yet, two of the sources said.”

CNN’s Scott Jennings was initially believed to be a front-runner for the job, and reports indicated he was interested. However, he now appears unlikely to get it. Jacobs and Jiang wrote, “Jennings was unlikely to be the final choice.”

This seems to come up a couple of times a year. A college sports program bans a news outlet because someone in leadership doesn’t like something that was reported.

This time, it’s Texas Christian University’s football program, which has revoked the media credentials for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The dispute is over a story about a locker room fight that resulted in one of the players, Jacob Fields, being kicked off the team.

The Star-Telegram reported the media ban in a story written by Jim Barnes. According to that story, “a TCU athletics spokesman said the Star-Telegram’s credentials were being pulled because the coverage resulted in threats to the victim.”

However, the Star-Telegram added that it “did not identify the player, junior wide receiver Dozie Ezukanma, until three days after the initial report, when he identified himself in a now-deleted Instagram video.”

Fields was thrown off the team Aug. 18 for violating team rules, according to TCU. The Star-Telegram, as it should, kept reporting and wrote that Fields’ dismissal was the result of a physical altercation between two players in the locker room the week before. An unnamed source close to Fields told the Star-Telegram that Fields “felt targeted by teammates with insults and threats” and that is what led to the fight. The source also said the TCU coaching staff made “no attempts to de-escalate the brewing tension.”

Three days later, the Star-Telegram wrote a follow-up story clarifying that bullying did not cause the fight and describing instead “tensions brewing from competitive football and some questionable plays in practice.” After that, Ezukanma posted his now-deleted Instagram video explaining his version of what happened.

Then came the decision to revoke the Star-Telegram’s credentials. TCU athletic director Mike Buddie said in a statement on Tuesday, “Our primary focus is the health and well-being of our student-athlete. Unfortunately, an unnamed source without first-hand knowledge of the incident provided inaccurate information cited in initial reporting by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which we strongly disputed.”

Buddie added, “The inclusion of the misinformation advanced a narrative that endangered a student-athlete and resulted in threats to him and his family. These actions led to the decision to withhold the media credential until additional conversation can be held between athletics and the sports reporting team. We remain dedicated to restoring our student to health as well as focusing on the game that’s ahead.”

Unless I’m missing something, I’m not sure the Star-Telegram did anything wrong, particularly because it did not identify Ezukanma before he identified himself in a social media post.

Awful Announcing’s Drew Lerner wrote, “The Star-Telegram is the only publication with a dedicated full-time staff covering TCU football, the paper says. Steven Johnson, a reporter for the paper, was set to travel to Dublin, Ireland, for the Horned Frogs’ opener against North Carolina on Saturday, but his credential has been revoked. TCU, as the designated home team, has the right to determine who is credentialed for the game.”

Shehan Jeyarajah, the president of the Football Writers Association of America, put out a statement that said, “As president of (the Football Writers Association of America), I strongly disagree with TCU’s decision to ban the Star-Telegram from coverage. Steven Johnson has covered TCU with class for years and his credential to cover the game in Ireland should be reinstated immediately.”

Other members of the media have backed the Star-Telegram. Veteran football reporter Charean Williams tweeted, “Absolutely no outlet should cover any of their home games until this is rectified. This is unbelievable.”

Scott Bell of The Dallas Morning News, a rival of the Star-Telegram, took aim at TCU’s head coach, tweeting, “This is disappointing. It’s also not the first time a Sonny Dykes-coached team has pulled/threatened to pull access over a reporter doing their job — and doing it well. I’m hopeful this is resolved soon.”

Speaking of college football, ESPN is getting rid of the BottomLine ticker during live college football games. The ticker is the graphic at the bottom of the screen that gives scores from other games, as well as the latest sports news.

The network confirmed the move to Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel.

This means all college football games aired on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPNU and ESPNEWS won’t have the BottomLine during live action.

I’m not a fan of this move. I spend a good chunk of my Saturdays watching college football. I like having that ticker to keep me updated on other games and scores in other sports.

The arguments for removing the ticker are that it frees up more room to show the actual game and eliminates a distraction. And with today’s technology, any score from any game can quickly be retrieved on your phone.

An ESPN spokesperson told Glasspiegel, “We’re always looking for ways to better serve sports fans. By removing the BottomLine during live action, we’re creating a cleaner presentation that keeps the focus where it belongs — on the field.”

The ticker will still appear at specific times during games to show scores from around the country. Programming updates — that is, games being moved from one ESPN property to another because an earlier game runs long — will be posted in the upper right corner of the screen, according to Front Office Sports.

This isn’t unprecedented. ABC and ESPN already go without using a BottomLine ticker during major events, such as college football’s national championship game and many NBA playoff games.

Slava “Sal” Veder, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for The Associated Press, died in his sleep last week. He was just eight days shy of his 100th birthday.

His prize-winning photo, taken in 1973, is among the most famous photographs in American history. Veder captured the moment a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel was greeted on an airport runway by his joyous family, including his wife, two daughters and two sons. The family was reunited after Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm had spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. For that photo, Veder was awarded the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.

In a 2015 interview with The Guardian, Veder said, “You could tell, even at a distance, what they were feeling. It was all over them, their faces, the way they all broke into a run. There was a surge of emotion from the crowd, too.”

The Associated Press’ Kathleen Ronayne and Janie Har wrote, “The photo became a symbol of the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. But for Stirm, it represented heartbreak as he had been handed a ‘Dear John’ letter from his wife, Loretta, by a chaplain upon his release and the couple divorced a year later. Stirm died in 2025.”

Ronayne and Har have more on Veder’s life and career.

Tributes are still pouring in for the legendary Dolly Parton, who died Tuesday at the age of 80.

What has struck me in the hours and days since Parton’s passing is how much superb writing there has been about who Parton was and what she meant to fans — who seemingly included everybody.

Check out this lead from The New York Times pop music critic Lindsay Zoladz’s appreciation of Parton: “Usually when we say someone has the voice of an angel, we mean that they don’t quite sound human — that they have an airy, clarion, pristine falsetto hovering far above mortal concerns. Dolly Parton, who died Tuesday at age 80, had the voice of an earth angel. She knew all about the dirt and the muck and the ugliness, the shame of poverty, the chill of sorrow, the burning throb of a jealous heart. That meant she also knew precisely how best to soothe those pains in song, composing her own homemade balms for whatever ailed.”

Zoladz’s entire piece is really well written, so be sure to read it.

Also, here’s Jon Bream, the Minnesota Star Tribune’s music critic since 1975, with “Remembering Dolly Parton, from her quick wit to lipsyncing.”

By the way, all three major networks ran one-hour prime-time specials about Parton. ABC and CBS aired specials at 10 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, while NBC aired its special at 9 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday.

ABC reported that its special — “Dolly Parton: An American Original” — drew more than 4 million viewers.

• In Wednesday’s newsletter, I wrote about how The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed in which the author, investor Stan Druckenmiller, admitted to using artificial intelligence to help write his piece. After some questions about the use of AI (and some criticism about not disclosing it), Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul A. Gigot weighed in with his thoughts: “Much Ado About Artificial Intelligence.”
• My Poynter colleagues Jon Greenberg and Kelly McBride with “A diminished Stars and Stripes is bad for the US military and bad for America.” Greenberg and McBride wrote, “By funding an independent newsroom to cover the military, past Pentagon officials acknowledged the unique information needs of active service members, even though those same officials didn’t enjoy the scrutiny. But President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have made it clear they intend to curtail independent reporting on the Department of Defense.”
• Writing for Poynter, Tom Rosenstiel with “To survive, journalism must become indispensable.”
• Variety’s Todd Spangler with “Iowa and Montana Ask Supreme Court to Block ‘Politicized’ Paramount-Warner Bros. Antitrust Suit Filed by California and 11 Other States.”
• Earlier this week, The Washington Post was ordered by an arbitrator to rehire Karen Attiah, the opinion columnist it fired last year. Attiah sat down with Columbia Journalism Review’s Riddhi Setty in “Karen Attiah Is Ready to Go Back to the Washington Post.”
• Variety’s Marc Malkin with “New York Times Awards Columnist Kyle Buchanan Exits Paper to Launch Podcast Series.”

• Find your voice in our free, four-day writing workshop for journalists of color. Celebrate the 10th anniversary of Power of Diverse Voices with expert coaching, immersive learning and a supportive community. Apply by Sept. 18.
• Strengthen your investigative reporting with Will Work for Impact: Fundamentals of Investigative Journalism. Enroll now.
• Learn how to write a memoir with expert guidance in a five-week virtual workshop. Enroll now. 

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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