(Indianapolis, IN) - Social media giant Meta has been brought down a peg following a successful lawsuit against them.

 

A settlement has been reached between the company and 47 states and four U.S. territories for a total of $71 billion. The claim is that Meta knowingly designed features on its social media platforms led children and teens to addictive behaviors.

 

Attorney General Todd Rokita announced this week that Indiana Facebook and Instagram users will get a slice of that pie, to the tune of between $298 and $419.4 million.

 

“This settlement is a milestone victory for Hoosier families,” Rokita said Wednesday. “For years, Meta prioritized engagement and profits over the mental health and well-being of our children. Today, we are securing both meaningful accountability and concrete changes that will help protect the next generation. Parents will finally have stronger tools, including opting their teens out of algorithm-driven scrolling designed to keep them hooked.”

 

According to the Attorney General’s Office, in addition to monetary compensation, Meta agreed to the following key provisions:

 

• Hard cap daily time limits and “Productive Pauses” for children: For its two platforms, Instagram and Facebook, a combined two-hour daily time limit with mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes to interrupt endless scrolling.  These limits remain in effect for five years. If Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube adopt comparable terms, the daily limit on each platform will drop to 60 minutes for 10 years;
• “Nighttime blocks” restricting children’s access from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.;
• Limited school-time access for children, eliminating push notifications on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during the school year;
• Robust age assurance measures to more effectively verify the age of young users;
• Safer, age-appropriate content controls, including stronger safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders, and content related to suicide and self-harm;
• Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls;
• Limits on social comparison features, including beauty filters and visible “like” counts, that have been linked to poor mental health outcomes in kids and teens.

Rokita said his office is working alongside other states to secure similar settlements from companies like Discord, Roblox, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.

 

The settlement also resolves the states’ claims against Meta for its sharing of nonpublic information about Facebook users with third parties, like Cambridge Analytica, leading up to the 2016 election.