GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Wednesday a $171 million settlement with Meta over the role the company played in addicting teens to social media.
WATCH: Meta agrees to pay Michigan $171 million for role in teen social media addiction
“For too many years, social media platforms have traded our children’s mental health for engagement on their apps,” Nessel said in a statement announcing the court's decision.
The settlement is part of a larger $17 billion agreement involving 47 total states.
As part of the settlement, Meta agreed to make several child safety improvements to its platforms, including:
- Hard cap daily time limits and “Productive Pauses” for children: for its two platforms, Instagram and Facebook, a combined two-hour daily time limit with mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes to interrupt endless scrolling. These limits will remain in effect for five years. If Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube adopt comparable terms, the daily limit on each platform will drop to 60 minutes for 10 years.
- “Nighttime blocks” restricting children’s access from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
- Limited school-time access for children, eliminating push notifications on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during the school year.
- Robust age assurance measures to more effectively verify the age of young users.
- Safer, age-appropriate content controls, including stronger safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders, and content related to suicide and self-harm.
- Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls.
- Limits on social comparison features, including beauty filters and visible “like” counts, that have been linked to poor mental health outcomes in kids and teens
Dr. Heide Rollings, medical director at Pine Rest's Pediatric Center of Behavioral Health, said the effects of social media on young people continue to grow across the state and in West Michigan.
"I certainly am hearing about it from parents in my clinical work. Many teens who are in our programs or getting services often bring up experiences they're having online and how these impact them. So I would say it's certainly having an impact," Rollings said.
Rollings said research points to several significant harms tied to social media use among youth.
"When we look at research of like what are some of the harms, big ones that stand out are outsourcing of self-worth, and that can be through comparisons, the likes, the filters. Loss of real activities and loss of sleep are some real risks we know happen with problematic media use," Rollings said.
Rollings said the settlement's required platform changes are a meaningful step forward.
"I think those are great steps to take forward. Certainly, can more be done always, but I think those are actually addressing some of the big harms," Rollings said.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988, or chat 988lifeline.org to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
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