In a statement released Wednesday morning, Paxton called the settlement “historic” and said the payments will go toward funding digital literacy programs, youth mental health services and Texas schools. But Meta also agreed to several changes to its platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, both Paxton and the company said on Wednesday.
“It is my mission to fundamentally change and strengthen the standards for child safety online,” Paxton said Wednesday. “This settlement is a major step forward in the fight to ensure our kids are protected online.”
As part of the settlement, Meta said it had agreed to implement strict age-verification measures. Meta apps will enforce a two-hour daily time limit by default for teenagers that can only be turned off with a parent’s permission. Facebook and Instagram will be blocked for teenagers at night, and notifications from those apps will automatically be muted during school hours. Teens will be prompted every 15 minutes while scrolling, which Meta said will break up infinite scroll.
Other changes include hiding likes and reactions for teens, which Paxton’s statement says will “limit social comparison.” Teen accounts will have cosmetic surgery and “extreme makeup filters” disabled for Facebook and Instagram stories. Age-based content restrictions will be enforced for teen accounts, though Meta did not specify what it considers “age-appropriate” content.
Paxton’s settlement with Meta appears distinct from a landmark $17.1 billion settlement Meta reached with 47 states, the District of Columbia and several U.S. territories on Wednesday morning. That settlement, spearheaded by California, ended a bellwether federal case in Oakland in which California and the states of Kentucky, Colorado and New Jersey sought nearly $200 billion in damages over claims Meta apps harmed kids. The settlement, talks of which were first reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday evening, was an abrupt end to a trial that could have damaged the company had a jury found it liable for mental health problems affecting teenagers who used Meta platforms.
While Texas, Florida and New Mexico were not listed as plaintiffs in the settlement California Attorney General Bob Bonta’s office released, Texas is an “eligible” state listed in the terms of the agreement. Meta said in its own statement that Texas was one of the states that joined the settlement agreement. Chron has reached out to Meta to clarify the terms of the agreement between Texas and the company.
This is the second time that Meta has settled with Paxton’s office for a 10-figure amount. Meta paid $1.4 billion to settle a 2024 lawsuit with Texas after Paxton accused the company of using personal biometric data without user permission.
While still a gargantuan figure for a settlement, $17.1 billion is pocket change for Meta. The company reported more than $200 billion in revenue last year. And as New York Times tech reporter Mike Isaac pointed out on X, Meta is poised to spend as much as $145 million on AI efforts like data centers over the next decade. Still, the changes to Facebook and Instagram will dramatically change how teenagers use social media as politicians and a bipartisan group of activists raise alarms about the possible harms of teen social media use.