Meta reached a settlement with attorneys general from 48 states and four US jurisdictions over teen safety practices on Facebook and Instagram, agreeing to pay up to $18 billion and implement stricter age verification, notification limits, and screentime caps for minors. Notably, roughly $5.3 billion of that payment is contingent on TikTok and YouTube adopting comparable restrictions, a structure Meta explicitly encouraged in a public letter to its rivals.
Roblox has introduced a new policy blocking younger players from experiences that reward continuous media consumption through autoplay, infinite scrolling, or embedded video feeds. The rule appears aimed squarely at 'Steal an Egg,' a viral game that let players boost their characters by watching a treadmill-style video stream, which was pulled and later reinstated without that feature. Accounts under the Roblox Kids and Select tiers, covering ages 5 to 15, are now barred from such games.
Meta has settled with 47 US states over youth safety harms, agreeing to pay at least $12 billion regardless of outcome, with an additional $5.3 billion contingent on TikTok, YouTube and Snap adopting similar protections like default usage limits and nighttime notification blocks. Meta publicized the deal through an 'Open Letter' and full-page newspaper ads urging its rivals to match its new standards, while TikTok, YouTube and Snap have not yet commented.
Meta is reportedly encouraging other major platforms like YouTube and TikTok to share in settling claims over harm to young users' mental health, but Snapchat appears to be left out of that outreach. The move would spread liability and costs across multiple companies rather than Meta alone, even though bringing in more parties could theoretically raise Meta's own settlement obligations.
Meta has agreed to pay as much as $17.1 billion and change how Instagram and Facebook operate, settling claims from 47 states, D.C. and U.S. territories that its platforms were built to addict and harm children. About $12 billion is due upfront, with the rest contingent on Snap, TikTok and YouTube accepting similar penalties and reforms.
Meta has agreed to pay roughly $18 billion to resolve claims from 52 state attorneys general that its platforms harmed teen mental health, without admitting wrongdoing. As part of the deal, it will roll out default teen protections including a two-hour daily usage cap, a nighttime mode that disables feeds and Reels from midnight to 6 a.m., and muted notifications during school hours, while still allowing direct messaging.
Bluesky now allows videos up to 10 minutes long, a major jump from the three-minute cap set just last year, and has raised the max file size to 300MB. The company says uploads will also be 2-3x faster, and because Bluesky runs on the decentralized AT Protocol, other apps like Bluescreen, Reelo, and Skylight will inherit the longer video support too.
Meta settled a federal lawsuit brought by attorneys general from 51 US states and territories over claims it harmed young users, agreeing to pay as much as $16.7 billion and overhaul how teens use Instagram and Facebook. The deal came abruptly, just days into a federal trial that had threatened over $1 trillion in potential liability, and includes a default two-hour daily time limit for teens that requires parental approval to remove.
Meta has reached an $18 billion settlement with attorneys general from 48 states resolving claims that its platforms harmed young users' mental health. The agreement includes new protections for minors, but the full payout is contingent on rivals TikTok and YouTube adopting comparable safety measures.
Bluesky announced it is extending its maximum video length from three minutes to 10 minutes, alongside a new 300MB file size cap and faster upload speeds of 2x-3x. The change also benefits third-party apps built on the AT Protocol, like Bluescreen, Reelo and Skylight, which will inherit the same longer video capability.
A tech-industry writer describes how growing awareness of social media's harms—cyberbullying, body dysmorphia, and related mental health issues seen firsthand through his wife's pediatric nursing work—led his family to restrict their children to flip phones and keep them off platforms like TikTok. He notes this reflects a broader trend among tech workers and public figures, coinciding with rising cultural pushback including Jonathan Haidt's book, national social media bans in countries like Australia, and a US Supreme Court ruling upholding age-verification laws.
The U.S. Department of Justice settled its lawsuit against TikTok, ByteDance and affiliated companies for $400 million over repeated violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The suit, filed in 2024, alleged TikTok let children under 13 create standard accounts outside its restricted Kids Mode, collected their data without parental consent, and failed to delete accounts when parents requested it. TikTok will pay $300 million immediately, with an additional $100 million due if a court vacates an earlier 2019 consent decree tied to its predecessor app, Musical.ly.
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