Meta has announced it will implement significant changes to its Instagram and Facebook apps in a settlement that ended a landmark lawsuit, which accused the company of deliberately designing its apps to be addictive for children.
The agreement will require the social media company to pay up to $18 billion, Meta agreeing to establish a safeguards for teenage users, including usage limits and block on nighttime use.
“Meta has agreed to make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm from its platforms and will do it within months,” the agreement stated.
The lawsuit alleged that Meta’s platforms were engineered with features that exploit psychological vulnerabilities, encouraging compulsive , algorithm-driven content feeds that will gain traction as parents, advocacy groups and regulators argued that Meta prioritize metrics over child safety.
The platform will hide likes and reaction counts from users below 18 years and remove filters, giving teens the option to use a non-personalized feed that does not rely on algorithms to recommend content.