LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Meta agreed to pay $17 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms to end a landmark trial over teen social media addiction and settle claims filed by 47 states, including Kentucky and Indiana, state attorneys general announced Wednesday.
The settlement resolves a pivotal legal case years in the making that sought to hold the tech giant accountable for the role its platforms played in undermining children’s mental health. The effort targeted features designed to hook young people’s attention.
"While Meta is certainly paying for its conduct, this was never just about the money," Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a statement Wednesday. "Kids deserve a childhood that isn't measured in likes and followers. The online protections delivered by this settlement will bring a generational change that will make social media platforms safer for Kentucky families."
Under the terms of the settlement, Coleman said Kentucky will receive $358 million. Kentucky will also get nearly $7.5 million from Meta as part of a settlement in an investigation regarding Cambridge Analytica, Coleman said. The investigation was launched over the revelation Meta shared nonpublic information about its users with third parties like the political consulting and data analytics firm leading up to the 2016 election.
The settlement requires Meta to adopt a series of safety features, including a "hard cap" on daily time limits and pauses for children using Instagram and Facebook. Called "Productive Pauses," Instagram and Facebook will have a combined two-hour daily time limit with mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of continuous use an again at 60 and 90 minutes to interrupt endless scrolling.
Meta will also eliminate push notifications during weekday school hours, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the school year. Additionally, "nighttime blocks" will restrict children's access from 12-6 a.m. It will also bring in "robust" age-assurance measures and "age-appropriate" content controls to prevent bullying and harmful material about eating disorders and self-harm. It will also implement stronger and more user-friendly parental controls and limits on social comparison features such as "like" counts.
The settlement still needs court approval. Most of the changes will be in effect for 10 years. An independent auditor will assess how Meta is implementing the safety features an how effective they are.
Indiana will receive a guaranteed $296 million and up to $419.4 million as part of the settlement, Attorney General Todd Rokita said.
"This settlement is a milestone victory for Hoosier families," Rokita said in a statement. "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."
Money from the settlement will be paid out annually over 10 years, to fund youth online safety initiatives. However, Meta said 30% of that amount — about $5.3 billion — will only be released to states if rivals YouTube and TikTok meet two conditions: implementing similar safety features, including a one-hour daily time limit, a nighttime block and age-assurance measures; and paying the same amount, split between the companies.
In a statement, Meta said the protections being put into place "will only be truly effective if our peers—TikTok and YouTube—put the same measures in place."
"I am pleased to announce that Meta has reached an agreement with a bipartisan group of state attorneys general from around the country on a new set of rules governing teens' use of social media. The framework we've negotiated will empower parents to easily manage how their children access our platforms," said Meta Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney. "Our new Time Limit commitments, Night Mode features and usage limits during school hours set the right path forward for our whole industry, but this framework will only work if all our peers join us. 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. As a parent, I'm proud of both the work Meta has done to protect kids historically, and of this new groundbreaking agreement. But its success depends on all other social media platforms following Meta’s lead.”
The agreement cuts short an ongoing court case involving California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, which were among 29 states that sued Meta in 2023. CEO Mark Zuckerberg was among those expected to take the stand before a jury in federal court in California.
The lawsuit accused Meta of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features that addict children to its platforms and hiding them from the public. The case also argued that Meta violated federal laws by routinely collecting data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent.
The trial kicked off last week in Oakland, California, with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers overseeing the proceedings. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, began his testimony late Tuesday and defended Meta’s record and progress on child safety and privacy.
The cases in other states had been expected to go to trial later. In addition, nine attorneys general filed lawsuits in their respective states.
Copyright 2026 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press also contributed to this report.
