I HAVE THE ACTUAL META SETTLEMENT DOCUMENT FOR YOU!
by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. – attorney, law professor emeritus, and author of Federal law
As I’m sure you’ve heard on the news today, Meta *just now* entered into a settlement agreement in the big “Many states against Meta” lawsuit in which Meta was being accused of intentionally (or at least knowingly) making Facebook and Instagram *addicting* to minors, along with misleading the public about it, and also collecting the private data of children. In part the legal theories of the lawsuit were based on consumer protection laws, COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), and products liability theory, not unlike how states went after vape juice companies who were aiming their products at kids, and the tobacco lawsuits before that.
The basics of the settlement are that Meta will:
– restrict teens to 2 hours a day across platforms by default
– bar teen accounts from accessing the platforms between the hours of midnight and 6am by default
– turn off notifications overnight and during school hours
– strengthen their age verifications
– hide or restrict the number of “likes” a teen receives
– bar access to cosmetic filters
– give the option for a feed that is not personalized by Meta’s algorithms
In addition there will be an auditor auditing all this to make sure it happens. Also, Meta is paying billions out to the states for various programs.
The defaults can be overridden by a parent.
I’m pretty proud of the fact that I found the actual settlement document for you – it’s 130 pages long. It still has to be approved by the judge but I see no reason that it wouldn’t be.
Notes from the Front members: the actual settlement agreement is in your inbox now.
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P.S. If you actually read all the way to the bottom please leave a sentence in a comment that includes the word “children”. It will show me that my efforts aren’t in vain and that people actually *do* read these things, and it will drive those who just skim crazy wondering just why everyone is talking about children! ;~)
(The above was provided by me, Anne P. Mitchell, Esq.- attorney and law professor emeritus – all me, no AI, the buck stops here.)
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