YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said the video platform will not join Meta’s multistate settlement over child safety allegations, telling CNN that YouTube has “invested in making sure that young people are safe on our platform… for a very long time” and plans to keep building on its own safety measures rather than adopt the terms Meta agreed to.
Meta reached an $18 billion settlement with a coalition of state attorneys general, resolving claims that the company designed addictive platforms that contributed to a youth mental health crisis. Meta has since pushed YouTube and TikTok to adopt similar changes, including daily time limits, the removal of “Like” counts for teen users, and third-party oversight of safety practices. Under the terms Meta disclosed, participating states are guaranteed 70% of the settlement, or roughly $12.7 billion. The remaining $5.3 billion is contingent on YouTube and TikTok each contributing around $6 billion and matching Meta’s safeguards. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the states are prepared to take both companies to court if they do not fall in line.
Mohan pushed back on that framing directly. “We’re a very different platform,” he told reporters at YouTube’s Made on YouTube event earlier this week, pointing to the platform’s growing living-room viewership as a distinguishing factor from Meta’s apps. He cited existing safeguards, including a parental option to limit teen viewing time on Shorts, and said YouTube consults third-party experts on child safety features. TikTok has not responded publicly to Meta’s push, and Bonta’s office did not immediately comment on Mohan’s position.
The two platforms facing the same pressure are not responding the same way. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told the BBC his company would be “willing to implement” default time limits for teen users, calling the move “an important step forward for the industry,” though he stopped short of a timeline: “That’s something we’ve talked about internally. I don’t have more to share today.” Spiegel pointed to Snap’s existing Family Center feature, which lets parents monitor aspects of teen usage, as a starting point. Snap settled its own social media addiction lawsuit in July, ahead of a scheduled Los Angeles trial, leaving Meta as the only major platform that went to trial over the underlying allegations.
YouTube’s resistance comes despite its own legal exposure on the same issue. In March, a Los Angeles jury found YouTube and Meta liable for intentionally addicting a young woman and harming her mental health; both companies plan to appeal. YouTube settled a separate case with another teen in July, as did TikTok and Snap, while the teen’s case against Meta was dropped. All four platforms continue to face hundreds of additional claims from individuals, families, and school districts in a pending multidistrict litigation.
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