Albany, NY (WRGB) — Social media giant Meta settling a lawsuit with a coalition of States on Wednesday, and will now pay out $18 billion over the next decade due to teen social media addiction.
$18 billion is one of the highest payouts from a tech company in history.
“This is a big win. I will say, however, that this does not let Meta off the hook,” NYS Senator Andrew Gounardes told CBS6 on Wednesday. “This just proves what we have been saying for years. What I’ve been saying for years, which is why I fought so hard to pass the Safe for Kids Act two years ago, first law in the nation to restrict algorithms to go after overnight notifications and things like that. Things that Meta has now agreed to stop doing.”
As Gounardes mentioned, some of Meta’s new framework is in the process of being implemented in New York’s The Safe for Kids Act:
-Bans social media platforms from offering addictive feeds to users under 18 without parental consent.
-Prohibits social media platforms from sending notifications to minors from 12AM and 6AM without parental consent.
-Authorize the Office of the Attorney General to bring an action to enjoin or seek damages or civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation.
-The regulations don’t prescribe specific age assurance methods, but instead set minimum standards to ensure they’re accurate, safe, and protect user privacy.
The Meta settlement requirements for teen accounts:
-Blocked from Meta platforms from 12:00 a.m.-6:00 a.m.
-Access to Instagram and Facebook limited to two hours/day.
-Pauses on notifications during school hours and from 10:00 p.m.-7:00 a.m.
Dr. Sarah Domoff, Assistant Professor at the UAlbany Department of Psychology, says these measures reflect the research she and her colleagues have been engaging in.
“When we look at the the research on use and how it impacts teens, especially teens’ mental health, it can be really hard at night,” she says. “We know sleep is so important for well-being, for mental health, for physical health. Some algorithm recommendations are like, oh yeah, this is the topic I want to look into, but other times it’s like it can bring you down a rabbit hole and can be really hard to disconnect. And so, a lot of what we’re trying to do with teens is help them recognize what types of content is not beneficial for them and can build some agency around that. But importantly, what we do hear from teens and parents is that the designs, the features themselves, make it really hard from the get go. So one of the changes proposed is related to having it be non-algorithmic feed as a default versus having to manually go in there and change that each time you go on the app, for example.”
CJ Mahoney, Meta Chief Legal Officer released this statement:
“I’m pleased to announce that Meta has reached an agreement with a bipartisan group of State Attorneys General from around the country on a new set of rules governing teens’ use of social media. The framework we’ve negotiated will empower parents to easily manage how their children access our platforms. Our new Time Limit commitments, Night Mode features and usage limits during school hours, set the right path forward for our whole industry, but this framework will only work if all our peers join us. Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution. We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework, right away. As a parent, I’m proud of both the work Meta has done to protect kids historically, and of this new groundbreaking agreement. But its success depends on all other social media platforms following Meta’s lead.”