North Carolina will receive at least $451 million and possibly up to $645 million from a landmark settlement with tech company Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram.
"There are three major pieces to this settlement: access, safety and accountability," North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, said during a Wednesday press conference.
Attorneys general involved in the case, including North Carolina’s, alleged that Meta had designed Facebook and Instagram to be addicted to kids, knew about their risks and kept that information from the public.
The settlement is aimed at building safeguards for teenagers between 13 and 17 years old who use the platforms, allowing parents to dial safety features up or down depending on what they think their kids need.
Jackson said he would like to see North Carolina's initial $451 million share, which will be paid out over the next decade, used to fund things like crisis helplines for kids and school counselors and social workers. Meta would pay an additional 30% — or $191 million for North Carolina — if TikTok and YouTube adopt the safeguards.
"Today's settlement represents a major win for parents across the state," said Gov. Josh Stein, who launched a probe into Meta and joined the lawsuit against them during his time as attorney general.
Stein, a Democrat, said the investigation found Meta designed the apps to be more addictive to kids while simultaneously telling parents they were safe.
"Meta did not see children as precious beings to be protected. They saw them as dollar signs to be exploited," Stein said.
Settling instead of pursuing litigation ensured the new safeguards, Jackson said, while guaranteeing those guardrails would be put in place for a generation of kids that wouldn't otherwise have them.
"Litigation would mean that we were still many years away from bringing any of these child safety upgrades to these platforms. It would risk losing another generation, and that's a risk we cannot take," Jackson said.
A federal judge still needs to approve the settlement, but Jackson said he anticipates that happening in fairly short order. Parents should expect to see changes in their kids' feeds phased in over the next two to six months, he said.
What's in the deal
Meta has agreed to implement a number of new safety features across Facebook and Instagram as part of the settlement.
Most notably, there will be a cumulative two-hour time limit for kids between 13 and 17 years old across Facebook and Instagram. And kids won't be able to access the apps between midnight and 6 a.m. without their parents' permission.
"A 14-year-old boy is going to hit his two-hour limit, and he's going to go to his mom, and ask for more time. And now that mom, and
that son, will be involved in a conversation and a decision that they didn't have before. And that's what progress looks like today. That's what accountability for big tech looks like," Jackson said.
The time limit and night mode features will be in place for at least five years. Those will expand to 10 years if TikTok and YouTube implement similar features.
All other new safeguards are set to be in place for at least 10 years. Those include:
- Muting most notifications (except for direct messages and safety alerts) between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., when kids are likely in school.
- The option to use a chronological feed instead of an algorithmic feed.
- Prompts to pause after 15 consecutive minutes on Facebook or Instagram, and again once total daily time on the apps has reached an hour and 90 minutes.
- Defaulting to hidden likes and reactions on teens' posts and those they see from others.
- Blocking teens from using extreme makeup filters, which Meta says is in addition to an existing policy blocking them from using cosmetic surgery filters.
- Giving parents increased oversight and supervision over their teenagers' accounts, including notifications if their kid tries to link an additional account and periodic updates about how frequently their teen is using the platforms.
Meta already prevents kids younger than 13 from using its platforms, but says it will enhance its efforts to find accounts belonging to those younger children as part of the settlement.
An independent auditor will be appointed to determine if the company is keeping its commitments, a point Jackson said was key for states involved in the lawsuit. The independent auditor will issue annual reports to the states about Meta's compliance for at least five years.
Meta's initial payment to states as part of the settlement totals $12.7 billion, with the company agreeing to pay another $5.3 billion if YouTube and TikTok introduce similar time limits and night mode features and agree to pay about $2.65 billion each.
In other words, North Carolina's initial $451 million portion of the settlement could nearly double to about $833 million if TikTok and YouTube sign on.
What about other apps?
Meta officials on Wednesday stressed that for the new safeguards to work, they must be applied across other social media platforms, too, namely TikTok and YouTube.
"Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution. We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework, right away," wrote C.J. Mahoney, Meta's chief legal officer.
If other social media platforms sign on to the agreement, it would not only result in a 10-year commitment for the night mode and time limit features, but also make them stricter. Night mode would expand from midnight to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., while the daily limit would be reduced from two hours to one hour.
Jackson also acknowledged that teens are using multiple apps and that establishing safety measures on one doesn't fully mitigate the risk.
"We're happy to talk to TikTok and Snap and Google about this. We're also happy to take them to court, like we did with Meta, and like we're doing right now with TikTok. This is an easy way or a hard way situation," Jackson said.
As with Meta, Stein joined other attorneys general to launch a lawsuit against TikTok alleging that it knowingly built an app that it knew was addictive and told parents it was safe. Jackson has continued that lawsuit.
