Summary Bullets:
• In August, Meta admitted liability regarding social media’s addictive qualities on children, reaching a $17.1 billion settlement with US states and the District of Columbia.
• While seen as a victory by critics, the settlement is insufficient to introduce the sweeping changes needed to have a measurable effect.
Just weeks after Meta, the parent company of social media giants Instagram and Facebook, promised to restrict access to some of the more controversial features of its platform to settle a multi-billion dollar lawsuit, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill tightening social media controls for children. The California law, which goes into effect in 2028, mandates social media accounts for users under age 16 be private, limits algorithmic feeds for minors, masks children’s location data, and turns off overnight notifications for underage users. Unlike similar legislation passed by other states like Illinois, the California law allows parents to amend social media restrictions. Newsom also signed a bill that requires AI companies to reveal to minors whether they are communicating with a non-human entity. The legislation also prevents children from accessing risky content on subjects like self-harm.
The California law and the Meta settlement come at a time when governments across the US and around the world are imposing regulations on social media and AI companies. The goal is to protect minors from damaging content and addictive online platform characteristics that interfere with the mental health of minors. Governments ranging from Australia and Indonesia to the EU have enacted restrictions barring children and young teenagers from unlimited content access. In the US, government social media regulatory and legal activity is occurring at the state and local levels.
Social media platforms have been under fire for years as parents and researchers voice concerns about hazardous effects of social media on younger users. Research from both public and private sector entities finds that social media use can have wide-ranging repercussions on children’s mental health and brain development. Advisories from the US Surgeon General and the American Psychological Association also cite negative physical and social consequences to minors from sites like Instagram and Snapchat, including sleep deprivation and exposure to content promoting eating disorders.
While social media companies reject accusations that their platforms propagate addictive usage patterns, successful litigation and settlements favoring plaintiffs such as the August Meta resolution show they are on the defensive. As part of the resolution of that settlement, Meta agreed to set a two-hour daily platform limit for users under 18 on Facebook and Instagram. The company will also block overnight access to the online sites and eliminate some features such as ‘like’ counts that have negative effects on users’ mental health. Meta will pay roughly $12 billion initially to the states, with the remaining $5 billion disbursement dependent on TikTok, Google (YouTube’s parent), and Snap (SnapChat’s parent) also settling and agreeing to pay financial penalties and make similar feature access changes.
On paper, experts critical of the effects of social media use on children and teenagers welcome the feature changes. But while large-scale settlements and platform adaptations show at least implied admission of responsibility by platform vendors, it is not necessarily an indicator of future feature development plans or end user behavior. Regulatory restrictions imposed by governments such as Australia have had limited impact on user access as teenagers find ways to navigate around controls.