My initial response to the recent Meta settlement was relief that kids were finally being protected from intentional harms from corporate America, but a deeper investigation and a bit of reflection suggest that it’s too soon to relax. Meta stock prices actually rose on the news of the $17.1 billion price tag, to be paid over 10 years. Market analysts had expected a longer and more contentious federal trial and much bigger penalties.
The Settlement Is a Drop in the Bucket for Meta
To begin with, it’s not really a big beautiful $18 billion payout for Meta, as was widely reported. It’s more like $12.7 billion to be paid out over 10 years. Not such a big deal for a company that declared an annual revenue of $200 billion in 2025, and that’s been convicted of design features intended to addict kids to the platform, leading in extreme cases to death.
Social Media Aren’t the Biggest Reasons for Kids’ Mental Health Problems
Secondly, social media are not the biggest factors in kids’ mental health problems, which are indeed worrisome. Too frequently, young people are experiencing serious stressors in real life, including climate change, abuse, gun violence, global instability, family rupture, and community disintegration. What’s really needed if we care about young people is more attention to helping families and parents, making neighborhoods safer, and strengthening communities.
The Conditions of the Settlement Don’t Change the Algorithms
Finally, this settlement doesn’t push media companies far enough for the necessary changes. It hands off responsibility for age verification to third parties like app stores; it doesn’t go after the algorithms that feed kids a deadly diet of advertising, influencers, and self-promotion; it sets meaningless time limits (two hours on Facebook can be followed by two hours on TikTok, and on to YouTube from there); it incentivizes kids to find workarounds; it subverts adults’ responsibilities to teach kids how to use social media in positive ways; and it undermines young people’s agency.
Maybe the Tide Is Turning Against Extractive, Predatory Tech Companies
Psychology Today contributor Tracy Dennis-Tiwary is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at The City University of New York who conducts NIH-funded studies on the impact of technology on social-emotional health. In a recent article, she wrote, “I’m happy that public opinion has turned against extractive, predatory tech companies like Meta. This is the primary and important win of the settlement: it raises public awareness that social media platforms are not neutral and that companies should be held accountable for their practices. Yet, unfortunately, this settlement just represents another win for a deeply reprehensible company and industry. It won’t effectively make kids’ lives better; it might even distract us and deflect resources. I can only hope that it will set the stage for more effective regulation of these companies, and more support for kids.” (Two other Psychology Today contributors and experts in their own right, Breanna Gentile and Doreen Dodgen-Magee, have argued that the Meta and YouTube verdicts are not something to celebrate.)
There’s so much more we need to do if we want to give young people the supports they need in order to thrive.
The Meta verdict and settlement are of course controversial topics, with experts weighing in on many sides of it. Psychiatrist Lori Plutchik makes a counter-argument, writing that it’s wrong to hold Meta and other social media giants accountable for people’s misuse of their products. She argues that this kind of verdict robs people of personal responsibility for their behavior.
It’s All About Mindfulness and Context
Having given further thought to the Meta verdict and settlement, my biggest takeaway is a re-energized commitment to supporting young people and their parents in being mindful and informed in their use of social media, in the context of living healthy, balanced lives in the real world.
