Mississippi will receive nearly $189 million over 10 years as part of a multistate settlement with Meta Platforms, Inc., Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced Wednesday. The settlement, valued at $17.1 billion, is one of the largest consumer protection agreements in U.S. history outside of the tobacco industry and the largest with a tech company.
Fitch said the deal requires Meta to make significant changes to how children engage with Facebook and Instagram. The company will implement safety features aimed at protecting young users’ mental health and physical safety. Fitch described Meta’s platforms as designed to be addictive and exploit children’s vulnerabilities.
The settlement mandates Meta to introduce new safety measures, including daily time limits, with a combined two-hour cap across both platforms. Children will be prompted to take breaks after 15 minutes of continuous use and at 60 and 90-minute intervals. Nighttime access will be restricted from midnight to 6 a.m., and notifications will be disabled overnight. Restrictions on school-time access, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the school year, will also be enforced.
The agreement requires improved age verification methods, stronger safeguards against harmful content, and enhanced parental controls. It also limits features that promote social comparison, such as like counts and beauty filters. An independent auditor will regularly assess the implementation and effectiveness of these measures.
If other social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube adopt similar terms, Meta agrees to reduce the daily time limit to 60 minutes and extend the nighttime block to 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. The settlement resolves claims filed by 47 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands, alleging that Meta designed Instagram to be addictive and failed to warn about mental health risks.
The bipartisan investigation, launched in 2021, found that Meta designed Instagram’s features to addict children while internally recognizing the mental health harms. Fitch filed a lawsuit against Meta in October 2023, along with parallel federal and state complaints. The settlement also resolves related cases filed by other states and territories. Fitch has also filed a similar suit against TikTok, with investigations ongoing.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
