Buried in Meta’s $18B settlement is a legal pass on kids’ data

Meta will pay $18 billion to settle with 29 state attorneys general, and the settlement bars the states from suing over any COPPA-related claims if the children’s data are used only to develop, train, and test an age-assurance model. Meta must isolate that data, cannot use it for ad targeting or algorithmic optimization, and an independent auditor will oversee compliance, while federal FTC enforcement remains possible.