California, United States, August 26, 2026 — Meta has agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion and introduce sweeping child-safety reforms on Facebook and Instagram to resolve claims brought by US states over alleged harm to children and teenagers from its social media platforms. The settlement, announced Wednesday, is subject to court approval.
The agreement brings an early end to a closely watched federal trial in Oakland, California, in which California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey accused Meta of designing Instagram and Facebook features that encouraged addictive use among young people and contributed to mental-health harms. The broader settlement resolves claims involving 47 states, the District of Columbia and US territories.
The case had raised the possibility of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appearing before a jury. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri had already testified during the trial, defending the company’s efforts to improve child safety and privacy.
State attorneys general described the agreement as a landmark consumer-protection settlement. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said the deal is the largest state consumer-protection settlement in US history outside settlements involving the tobacco industry in the 1990s.
The states had alleged that Meta knowingly designed its platforms to encourage prolonged and addictive use among young users while misleading the public about the risks. They also accused the company of improperly collecting personal information from children under 13 without parental consent.
