Meta Pays $18 Billion, Redesigns Facebook & Instagram for Kids — but Parents Can Still Sue
Meta (Facebook® and Instagram®) has reached a massive multistate settlement with state attorneys general over allegations that Facebook and Instagram were deliberately designed to be addictive for kids.
The 2023 lawsuit alleged that Meta used features to encourage compulsive use by young people. The states also alleged that Meta knew from internal research that its platforms could harm young users while publicly minimizing those risks.
The remedies are striking because they target the very features the states said were causing the problem. Teen accounts will be subject to stronger age verification, default time limits, overnight restrictions, reduced notifications, breaks during extended use, greater parental controls, and options for less-personalized feeds. Like counts will be hidden by default for teens, and certain appearance-altering filters will be restricted.
In practical terms, the settlement demonstrates that Meta can operate Facebook and Instagram with substantially more protections for children than it historically provided.
Private Lawsuits Are Not Over
Importantly, the settlement does not wipe out individual claims by children or their families.
Private lawsuits alleging social-media addiction and related injuries remain pending around the country. Those cases generally focus on whether platform design contributed to harms such as compulsive use, sleep disruption, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm, declining school performance, or other serious behavioral and psychological problems.
The settlement does not establish that Meta is legally responsible for any particular child’s injuries. But it may become an important piece of the larger conversation about what reasonable safeguards social-media companies could have implemented and when they could have implemented them.
Could Your Family Have a Claim?
Parents may want to speak with a lawyer if their child developed serious problems while heavily using Instagram or Facebook, particularly where the problems involved:
hours of compulsive daily use or an inability to stop using the platforms;
significant sleep disruption caused by late-night social-media use;
worsening depression, anxiety, isolation, or emotional distress;
eating disorders or serious body-image problems;
self-harm or suicidal behavior;
substantial deterioration in grades, attendance, athletics, friendships, or family relationships;
treatment by a therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, hospital, or other healthcare provider; or
social-media use beginning at a very young age, particularly before age 13.
Not every child who spent too much time on Instagram or Facebook has a viable legal claim. The strongest cases generally involve significant documented harm and evidence connecting that harm to prolonged or compulsive platform use.
If your child experienced serious psychological, behavioral, or educational problems associated with heavy Facebook or Instagram use, we can evaluate the circumstances and discuss whether a claim may be worth investigating.