Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul says a multistate $17.1 billion settlement with Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, will lead to groundbreaking changes to how children use social media.
Wisconsin and other states sued Meta in October 2023 following a multistate investigation into whether Meta knowingly deployed harmful features on its platforms that were addictive to children and falsely told the public that those features were safe for young users, Kaul said.
Wisconsin will receive at least $219 million as part of the settlement with Meta, he said during an Aug. 26 press conference. He called it the largest Big Tech settlement in the country’s history and the largest state consumer protection settlement with a single company, aside from settlements with big tobacco companies in the 1990s.
The settlement also requires Meta to adopt new safety features for children. The money Wisconsin receives from Meta could increase to $313 million if other major social media companies adopt similar restrictions for children.
“These changes are not only going to help reduce harms for kids’ mental health online, but I hope they can set a new standard for the entire industry so that kids who are using social media can stay safe and remain healthy as they’re online,” Kaul said. “We want to see this agreement prompt other companies to make similar changes.”
One change for children coming to Facebook and Instagram is a two-hour daily time limit with pauses at 15, 60 and 90 minutes of continuous use that would be in effect for five years. But if Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube agree to similar changes, the daily limit would be 60 minutes for 10 years, according to the state’s Department of Justice.
Meta would also block children’s access from midnight to 6 a.m.; eliminate push notifications during school time; improve age verification measures and safeguards for content that promotes eating disorders or is related to suicide and self-harm; and limit social comparison features, such as “like” counts.
“The challenges that kids face today are fundamentally different than the safety challenges that I faced as a kid. When I was a kid, people would talk about looking both ways before you crossed the street,” Kaul said. “Now kids spend a lot of their time online. They are in a digital world, and making sure that we are taking actions to keep kids safe is fundamental to what we do at DOJ to protect public safety and is at the root of this agreement.”
Kaul said the settlement money could be used for such initiatives as crisis intervention services, after-school and youth mental health programming, grants for school districts to support mental health, and training for medical providers on interactive media use and body dysmorphia.
Kaul said he was particularly concerned with the addictive nature of social media, features that worsen mental health, and harmful content about matters such as bullying, self-harm and eating disorders.
“Anybody who has kids knows the draw and the allure of these social media platforms,” Kaul said.
Kaul is part of the group of 51 attorneys general from states, territories and Washington, D.C. that reached the agreement with Meta. Texas reached a separate $1 billion settlement with Meta.
“Ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta,” the company said in a post on its site announcing the settlement. “We want to get this right for parents and teens, and that’s why we partnered with state attorneys general to set a new industry standard.”
After reaching the settlement in the lawsuit, Meta urged TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar measures for children. Kaul said other companies are on notice about their conduct because the investigation was about social media in general, not one company.
“We are committed to seeing not just change on one platform, not just on Instagram or not just on Meta platforms, but throughout the social media industry,” Kaul said.
