Meta to pay £12.5bn in child data and addiction settlement
Meta has agreed to pay £12.5bn and introduce child-safety measures to settle claims it collected data from children under 13 without parental consent and designed platforms to keep young users addicted.
Meta has agreed to pay £12.5bn and introduce new child-safety measures to settle a court case accusing the social media giant of collecting data from children aged 13 and under without parental consent. The company was also accused of designing its platforms to keep young people addicted to them.
The settlement, reported to be worth $17bn, will see Meta impose daily time limits on child Instagram users as part of the agreement. The case centred on allegations that the company deliberately engineered its social media products to encourage prolonged use among minors, raising concerns about the impact of such design choices on young users' wellbeing.
Under the terms of the settlement, Meta will implement additional safeguards on its platforms beyond the financial payment. The measures are intended to address the specific complaints raised in the litigation, which focused on the company's handling of children's data and the addictive nature of its services for younger audiences.
The allegations against Meta highlighted a broader debate about how social media companies collect and use data from minors. The claim that the company gathered information from children under 13 without parental consent touches on long-standing concerns about compliance with child privacy regulations, which typically require verifiable parental approval before collecting data from younger users.
The settlement also brings renewed attention to the design of social media platforms and their potential effects on young people. Critics have repeatedly argued that features such as infinite scrolling, notifications, and algorithmic content recommendations are optimised to maximise time spent on the platform, sometimes at the expense of users' mental health.
Meta has faced multiple legal challenges in recent years over its handling of young users. This latest agreement adds to a growing list of regulatory and judicial actions against major technology companies over privacy practices and the wellbeing of minors online.
The financial scale of the settlement, reported at £12.5bn, marks one of the largest agreements of its kind involving a social media company. The new child-safety measures will apply to Instagram and other Meta platforms, with the daily limits for child users representing a concrete operational change resulting from the case.
Details of how the settlement will be implemented and monitored have not been fully disclosed. The agreement resolves the specific claims brought in the case, though broader questions about the regulation of social media platforms and their treatment of young users are likely to continue shaping public debate and policy discussions.
