MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WDNews) — Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced Wednesday a $117.3 million settlement with Meta Platforms Inc. that will require new safety measures aimed at protecting children who use Instagram and Facebook.
According to Marshall’s office, the agreement resolves claims brought by 47 states and Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. The states alleged Meta designed Instagram with addictive features, knowingly exposed young users to mental health harms and misled the public about the safety of its platforms.
The nationwide settlement totals $17.1 billion. Marshall’s office said it is the largest state consumer protection settlement in history outside the Big Tobacco settlements of the 1990s.
“This settlement sends a clear message that Alabama will hold big tech accountable when it fails to protect our children online. Meta will pay millions of dollars to Alabama and has taken a critical step toward comprehensive reforms for youth safety. We will continue to monitor Meta to ensure compliance with the terms set forth in the settlement as well as to close off any loopholes predators and other bad actors might try to exploit,” Marshall said.
Under the settlement, Meta will be required to implement several safety features for children using Instagram and Facebook.
Those measures include a combined two-hour daily time limit across the two platforms and mandatory “Productive Pauses” after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes. According to the attorney general’s office, those restrictions will remain in place for five years.
If Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube adopt comparable terms, the daily limit on each Meta platform would drop to 60 minutes for 10 years.
The agreement also requires nighttime restrictions preventing children from accessing the platforms from midnight to 6 a.m.
During the school year, push notifications for children will be eliminated on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Other requirements include stronger age verification measures, expanded parental controls and additional safeguards involving bullying, eating disorder content, and content related to suicide and self-harm.
The settlement also places limits on social comparison features, including beauty filters and visible “like” counts.
According to Marshall’s office, an independent auditor and the states involved in the settlement will regularly assess both the implementation and effectiveness of the required changes.
Marshall’s office said the entire $117,345,409 settlement amount will go to the state of Alabama because the matter was handled in-house by the Attorney General’s Office.
