By Sarah Kidder, Executive Director of Kentucky Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs

On August 26th, Kentucky Attorney General Coleman led the charge in reaching a landmark multi-state $17.1 billion settlement with Meta holding them accountable for the harms caused to young people by the social media company.

This historic settlement comes at a pivotal moment to address young people’s mental health, well-being, and safety. It will bring unprecedented child-safety protections to current and future Meta social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, along with over $358 million in funding for remedies to Kentucky. 

How we got here

You have seen the headlines – there are various lawsuits moving through the courts against social media, gaming, and technology companies. To date, there have been over 3,1000 lawsuits filed in federal court, including suits from 42 state attorneys general and 1,300 suits from school districts, along with thousands of personal injury, school district, and local government lawsuits filed in state court, and a handful of state attorneys general have filed suit in their own state courts. 

These cases are largely coming from three groups: 

The settlement covered in this blog addresses the multi-state landmark win against Meta by state attorneys general under this category.

The fight

Kentucky Attorney General Coleman led the fight against Meta in federal court under consumer protection laws, alongside attorneys general from California, Colorado, and New Jersey. 

The case was centered around the claim that Meta deliberately designed its products to be addictive to children and teens, intentionally used product features (e.g., algorithmic recommendations, infinite scrolling, notifications, and more) to maximize youth time on the platforms, knowingly exposed young users to serious mental harms to increase profit, and intentionally misled the public about the safety of its platforms. 

These attorneys general fought for billions in financial penalties, public remedies, and platform changes to reshape how platforms like Facebook and Instagram engage young users and recover financial damages to be invested in remediation of the harms caused to young users.

The win

What was expected to be a 6 to 8 week trial ended one week in with one of the largest state consumer protection settlements in the country’s history on behalf of 48 states, DC, Guam, and Puerto Rico. There are two primary components of the settlement: the injunctive terms and the monetary terms. 

1. The injunctive terms include new safety protections required of any current and future Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. Meta has 6 months to implement a wide array of changes including parental controls, age verification, daily limits and scrolling pauses, nighttime blocks, school notification blocks, social metrics bans, third party auditor for oversight, and more.
2. For the monetary terms, of the $17.1 billion, about $11.7 billion is guaranteed to participating states and will be paid in 10 annual installments. The rest of that funding is conditional, depending on whether other social media companies agree to the same safety and financial terms.

Meta now has a competitive interest in ensuring other social media companies join in, and in Kentucky alone there are ongoing cases against TikTok, Roblox, and Character.AI, and potential litigation or negotiations with others.

The vast majority of the settlement money is being split between states on a population basis, but because of Kentucky’s leadership in this case we will receive additional funds totaling $358 million, which will be paid out in annual installments of $35.8 million each year over the next 10 years. If there are other social media settlements reached with financial penalties, these funds have the potential to increase.

What comes next

While we await the child-safety protections to be rolled out by Meta on their platforms, and eagerly await the outcomes of lawsuits and negotiations with other big tech companies, the Kentucky General Assembly will decide how these settlement funds will be spent in the Commonwealth.

As youth-focused organizations, we know youth seek screen time and social media in an effort to connect with others. And we believe the best way to spend these hard-won settlement funds is to invest them directly into our kids, supporting their well-being and fostering connection in real life.

Platform safeguards are essential and will have real-life impact on our young people, but protecting our kids while online is only part of the solution – we must invest in their offline lives as well, promoting connections with peers, building relationships with caring mentors, contributing to their communities, and helping shape solutions that affect their lives and their futures.

We look forward to working with Kentucky’s policymakers, advocates, community partners, families, and most importantly our young people, to ensure these settlement funds are invested in meaningful solutions for Kentucky’s kids, remediating the harms caused, and helping them heal, reconnect, and thrive.