Settlement to Help Protect Kids on Social Media

Pennsylvania is part of a multistate coalition that recently reached a settlement with Meta that assures the social media company will implement sweeping changes to its existing age assurance framework, limit children’s time on its platforms and cut kids’ access to harmful content.

According to Attorney General Dave Sunday, the settlement, which involves up to $17.1 billion in national remediation payments, is the largest-ever settlement involving a big tech company. Pennsylvania is expected to receive $516 million over a period of years — and up to $729 million. The total is contingent on other major social media companies agreeing to the same sweeping changes.

Among the changes Meta must implement under the settlement are:

• Hard cap daily time limits and “productive pauses” for children to interrupt endless scrolling.

• Nighttime blocks restricting children’s access from midnight to 6 a.m.

• Limited school-time access for children by eliminating push notifications on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the school year.

• Limits on social comparison features, including beauty filters and visible “like” counts.

• Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls.