Meta to Pay US$16.7 Billion Compensation, Imposes Night-Time Curfew on Teenagers on Instagram and Facebook
Technology giant Meta has agreed to pay a staggering US$16.7 billion (approximately Rp267 trillion) in compensation to halt lawsuits from 29 US states. In addition to the financial penalty, Meta has also agreed to implement new safety rules that drastically restrict teenagers’ access to the Instagram and Facebook platforms.
The landmark settlement in federal court is the culmination of long-standing allegations that Meta deliberately designed its app features to trigger addiction among young users, manipulated data on minors, and concealed the risks of mental health impacts from the public.
The main point of the agreement requires Meta to implement automatic night-time access restrictions (a digital curfew) for teenage accounts from 00.00 to 06.00 local time. In addition, the daily usage duration for teenage accounts will be automatically limited to a maximum of two hours per day across all Meta group applications.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta welcomed the outcome of the settlement. “Meta has agreed to a massive transformation that will reduce the risk of harm from their platforms within the coming months. This is real change and real protection for children,” he stressed.
The US$16.7 billion compensation payment will be deposited in 10 annual instalments, with the largest allocations going to California (up to US$2.1 billion) and New York (up to US$1.13 billion). To ensure compliance, an independent auditor will oversee Meta’s platform operations for the next 10 years.
Meta took this settlement to avoid a potentially larger fine exceeding US$1 trillion if the trial continued. Nevertheless, Meta emphasised that the compensation payment is not an admission of legal wrongdoing.
The trial, which ran for two weeks, revealed testimony from Instagram head Adam Mosseri, who acknowledged that the teen safety features promoted by the company actually had a low level of effectiveness and were assessed by several witnesses as “designed to fail”.