Meta will pay up to $16.68bn to settle the 29-state youth safety case

Meta agreed to pay up to $16.68 billion to settle claims from 29 states that it designed Facebook and Instagram to addict children, misled consumers about safety, and illegally collected minors’ personal data for use in machine-learning and generative-AI models. The settlement, reached during the trial in Oakland, requires daily usage limits, nighttime blocks for teenage users, enhanced age-verification measures, and new parental-control tools, with all parties waiving the right to appeal.