Meta settles child safety case with US states, faces wider lawsuits

Washington,UPDATED: Aug 27, 2026 03:56 IST

Meta has reached a settlement with dozens of US states in one of its biggest legal battles over the impact of social media on young users, but the company still faces several other lawsuits across the country over claims that its platforms harm children’s mental health.

The settlement, announced on Wednesday, ends a landmark federal trial in Oakland, California, where Meta was fighting allegations that it deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram features to make children addicted. Under the deal, Meta will pay up to USD 18 billion and make changes to how its platforms operate, including new guardrails for children’s safety. It also brings to a close related cases brought by several states, while other lawsuits against Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube continue.

The California trial had entered its second week and was expected to run for six weeks. Witnesses were likely to include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The case was brought jointly by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, which were among dozens of states that sued Meta three years ago over its platform design and the alleged harm caused to children. Another 25 states were due to go to trial later, but the settlement stops those cases from moving ahead.

The states had been seeking wide-ranging financial damages that could have run into billions of dollars, along with changes in how Meta runs Facebook and Instagram.

The settlement also resolves a trial that was under way in Tennessee. The Tennessee attorney general’s office had been part of the multistate investigation that led to the 2023 filing against Meta by dozens of states, but chose to file its case in a local court.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said, "We took Meta to trial because Instagram was hurting kids and misleading parents. Now we’re ending the trial with a settlement that imposes unprecedented protections for kids and delivers record-setting money for Tennessee’s Children’s Digital Protection Fund."

Skrmetti and several other attorneys general said the settlement addressed Meta’s role in an "industrywide problem" and urged other social media platforms to adopt similar safety measures.

New Mexico was not part of the settlement because it had already won its case against Meta. The state argued that the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and hid what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. In March, a jury found in favour of the state and held that there were thousands of violations, each counted separately towards a penalty of USD 375 million.

In early August, the judge ordered Meta to pay an additional USD 567 million in the second phase of the trial to address harm to young people from its platforms. The judge also ordered new safety measures, including a 90-hour monthly time limit for users under 18, restrictions on AI chatbots and mandatory warnings on the platforms. Meta has said it disagrees with the verdict.

The only other state that did not join the settlement was Florida, where the attorney general said the deal was not tough enough on Meta.

Beyond state-led cases, hundreds of school districts across the US have sued major social media companies, seeking compensation for costs they say they incurred while dealing with harm to children’s mental health linked to social media addiction.

One such case, brought by a small rural school district in Kentucky, had been due to go to trial this summer in federal court in California. But Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube each settled before the trial began. The Kentucky case had been chosen as a bellwether among 1,200 similar cases. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said in a statement that their focus remains on pursuing justice for the remaining 1,200 school districts that have filed cases.

Earlier this year, a jury in Los Angeles found Meta and YouTube liable in a case centred on social media addiction and claims that the companies designed their platforms to hook young users without regard for their wellbeing.

The plaintiff, identified by the initials KGM, testified that she became addicted to social media as a child and that it worsened her mental health struggles. After more than 40 hours of deliberations, a majority of jurors agreed and awarded USD 6 million in total damages.

The case was the first of its kind and had been randomly selected as a bellwether trial, serving as a test case for both sides before a jury and potentially influencing similar lawsuits. TikTok and Snapchat were also named as defendants, but settled before the trial began. Meta and YouTube have both appealed the verdict.

There are also thousands of similar lawsuits filed by individuals against social media companies. Many of them say the design of these platforms made them addicted to social media, which then led to poor mental health outcomes. Other cases point to different forms of harm linked to young people’s use of social media.

Some lawsuits have been filed by families of children and young adults who died by suicide after problematic social media use, and by families whose children died from accidental overdoses after drug purchases were facilitated through social media platforms.

The Meta settlement ends a major trial and blocks several others, but cases brought by states, school districts and individual families show that legal scrutiny of social media companies over harm to young users is far from over.

With PTI Inputs

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