Meta agrees to pay up to $16.7 billion in US youth safety case
What's new: The deal would impose default 2-hour limits, muted school-hour alerts and tighter parental controls on teens' accounts.
Meta Platforms agreed to pay up to $16.7 billion to settle a multistate U.S. lawsuit over child safety on Facebook and Instagram, according to a court filing Wednesday. The proposed agreement, which still needs a judge's approval, came during the second week of a federal jury trial in Oakland, California. The case was brought by 29 states that accused Meta of designing addictive features for young users. Under the settlement, known teen users would face a default two-hour daily limit across the apps, muted notifications overnight and during school hours, hidden like counts, stricter age checks and stronger parental controls. Meta does not admit wrongdoing under the deal.