Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Meta settles child harm claims for $18B, promises new safety features

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Meta settles child harm claims for $18B, promises new safety features · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: The company behind Facebook and Instagram have reached a settlement
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  Speaker 1: totaling nearly $ 18 billion to end a lawsuit centering on
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  Speaker 1: the harms of social media to children. The case was
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  Speaker 1: brought by a group of 29 US states alleging that
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  Speaker 1: Meta intentionally designed platforms to get young people addicted to them,
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  Speaker 1: harming their mental health. Four of the states were seeking
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  Speaker 1: as much as $ 1. 4 trillion in damages. As part of
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  Speaker 1: the settlement, Meta has agreed to make changes to its
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  Speaker 1: platform's including establishing daily time limits for teen users. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the California attorney general issued a statement saying, today we
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  Speaker 1: have secured a settlement with Meta that will make social
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  Speaker 1: media less dangerous for our kids and make a world
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  Speaker 1: of difference for children and for their families. Now, CNN's
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  Speaker 1: Claire Duffy is following this story and joins us now
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  Speaker 1: for more on all of this. Claire, this is an
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  Speaker 1: enormous settlement paid out by Meta in the middle of
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  Speaker 1: this trial. Just take us through the details.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Linda, I mean, this is $ 18 billion settlement. Many
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  Speaker 2: of the state attorneys general have called this the largest
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  Speaker 2: settlement ever in history with a big tech company. And
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  Speaker 2: that money will help go towards states' programs to fund
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  Speaker 2: mental health initiatives, youth online safety initiatives. But even more
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  Speaker 2: important than the money here is is the changes that
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  Speaker 2: Meta has agreed to make to its platforms. And I'll
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  Speaker 2: just walk you through some of those changes. Meta has
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  Speaker 2: agreed to set a default two-hour daily time limit for
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  Speaker 2: users aged 13 to 17 across both Facebook and Instagram.
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  Speaker 2: It will input a daily night mode that will block
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  Speaker 2: access to the apps from midnight to 6 a.m., also
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  Speaker 2: a school mode that will reduce the number of notifications
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  Speaker 2: that teens get during the day. It will prompt teen
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  Speaker 2: users every 15 minutes of continuous screen use to try
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  Speaker 2: to get them to be a little bit more conscious
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  Speaker 2: of their scrolling. It will also turn off likes by
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  Speaker 2: default on teen posts and remove access to extreme makeup filters.
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  Speaker 2: all of these addressing things that the states had said
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  Speaker 2: contributed to this youth mental health crisis. Now, we should
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  Speaker 2: say that Meta has not admitted to wrongdoing as part
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  Speaker 2: of this settlement, but these are really significant changes to
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  Speaker 2: how its platforms operate. And Meta is also calling on
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  Speaker 2: TikTok and YouTube to take similar steps here. In fact, Linda,
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  Speaker 2: as part of this settlement, Meta will be paying out
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  Speaker 2: 70% of that $ 18 billion settlement to the states to
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  Speaker 2: begin with. And the 30% will only be paid out
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  Speaker 2: if TikTok and YouTube agree to make similar changes. And
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  Speaker 2: so really, we could see an industry-wide change here because
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  Speaker 2: of this massive agreement.
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  Speaker 1: Just incredible. So they haven't admitted wrongdoing, but they are
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  Speaker 1: giving $ 18 billion to settle the case. But I'm certain
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  Speaker 1: that parents will be happy with some of these changes.
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  Speaker 1: Claire Duffy, good to have you with us. Thanks so much.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.
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  Speaker 3: 29 states sued Meta in 2023, accusing it of deliberately
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  Speaker 3: addicting young users for profit, leading to the mental and
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  Speaker 3: social harm of teens. On the first day of the
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  Speaker 3: trial last week, families presented a scroll they say showed
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  Speaker 3: the names of hundreds of young lives lost to social media.
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  Speaker 3: Let's discuss with Phil Weiser. He's the attorney general of Colorado,
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  Speaker 3: one of the states that settled with Meta today. Sir,
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  Speaker 3: thanks so much for joining us. You've described the steps
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  Speaker 3: that Meta agreed to take as groundbreaking. How do you
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  Speaker 3: know that these features are going to protect young people
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  Speaker 3: in comparison to features that Meta has rolled out in
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  Speaker 3: the past?
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  Speaker 4: Well, let's start, Boris, by acknowledging their features that currently exist,
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  Speaker 4: they're not working. That came out in the trial. A very, very,
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  Speaker 4: very small percentage of young kids on the platform face
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  Speaker 4: any form of speed bumps or guardrails. That's going to change.
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  Speaker 4: There are not going to be notifications and alerts keeping
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  Speaker 4: kids up at night. There are not going to be
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  Speaker 4: notifications and alerts distracting kids at school. The average kid
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  Speaker 4: is on social media up to an hour during the
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  Speaker 4: school day because these companies know that they're preying on
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  Speaker 4: kids' fears, that they're missing out. So kids are distracted.
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  Speaker 4: We're going to also have limits of how much time
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  Speaker 4: kids can be on these social media platforms. Kids need
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  Speaker 4: to be connecting with one another. They need to be outside.
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  Speaker 4: They need to get off social media. This is a
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  Speaker 4: groundbreaking step.
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  Speaker 3: This is historically I guess the core of the question
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  Speaker 3: is how you are going to police Meta. I understand
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  Speaker 3: that part of the agreement involves a form of auditor
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  Speaker 3: who is going to oversee this process and make sure
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  Speaker 3: that it's being followed. Can you give us more detail
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  Speaker 3: about who that auditor is going to be, how that
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  Speaker 3: is going to be determined?
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  Speaker 4: We will select an independent auditor who is working with,
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  Speaker 4: and this, by the way, is basically every state in
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  Speaker 4: the union. It's a multi-state coalition, Republicans and Democrats. We
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  Speaker 4: are staying on the case, literally and figuratively. They now
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  Speaker 4: have a legally binding obligation. We are going to make
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  Speaker 4: sure that these guardrails are respected. If a parent or
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  Speaker 4: a child sees notifications and alerts, for example, during times
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  Speaker 4: when they're not allowed We're going to hold them to account.
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  Speaker 4: This is a critical step forward. We know there's more
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  Speaker 4: work to be done. There are other companies like TikTok
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  Speaker 4: and Snap and YouTube. We need to address their behavior,
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  Speaker 4: but we also have to make sure that Meta does
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  Speaker 4: what they say they're going to do.
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  Speaker 3: To that point about other companies and Meta doing what
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  Speaker 3: they say they're going to do, The company said it
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  Speaker 3: would pay out 70% of the settlement fund to the
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  Speaker 3: states in annual installments over the next decade. That remaining
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  Speaker 3: 30% is going to be paid only if YouTube and
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  Speaker 3: TikTok agree to make payments to the states and similar
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  Speaker 3: changes to their apps. I guess the question is, do
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  Speaker 3: you expect those companies to comply even though they haven't
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  Speaker 3: settled with you or other states?
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  Speaker 4: I want to be clear why we're at this moment.
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  Speaker 4: Tennessee and Tennessee state court and a multi-state coalition, as
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  Speaker 4: you noted, 29 states in federal court in California are
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  Speaker 4: in trial right now. What made this settlement possible is
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  Speaker 4: the pressure and the focal point of an ongoing trial.
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  Speaker 4: If it takes trials against TikTok, against YouTube, against Snap,
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  Speaker 4: so be it. Those companies, they're on notice. that we
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  Speaker 4: have an expectation that responsible companies will do what it
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  Speaker 4: takes to protect kids. We should have legislation on this
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  Speaker 4: as well, by the way. And if Congress can start functioning,
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  Speaker 4: that will happen hopefully before too long.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think that Facebook should pay out the full
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  Speaker 3: 100 percent based on the harm that you argue that
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  Speaker 3: they've done as opposed to structuring it this way, which
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  Speaker 3: predicated on what other companies do?
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  Speaker 4: I want to be clear on this as well. The
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  Speaker 4: amount of money that Meta is paying out right now,
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  Speaker 4: not even contingent on industry-wide relief, is more money than
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  Speaker 4: almost any state consumer protection case in U.S.
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  Speaker 1: History.
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  Speaker 4: This is historic in terms of the amount of money.
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  Speaker 4: This is groundbreaking in terms of the relief. It is
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  Speaker 4: considerably more than a court ordered in another case, for example,
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  Speaker 4: after a full trial and liabilities. We're going to work
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  Speaker 4: to get all the money by getting industry-wide relief. That
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  Speaker 4: is part of our agenda. And whether it's because of
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  Speaker 4: litigated trials or because those companies are going to settle,
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  Speaker 4: we'll see.
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  Speaker 3: Phil Weiser, the Attorney General of Colorado, thank you so
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  Speaker 3: much for joining us. Appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 4: Thanks for having me.