Montgomery, AL – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced a $117.3 million settlement with Meta Platforms, Inc. that includes new requirements aimed at increasing protections for children and teenagers using Instagram and Facebook.
According to Marshall’s office, the Alabama settlement is part of a broader $17.1 billion agreement involving 47 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. The Attorney General’s Office described it as the largest state consumer protection settlement outside of the tobacco settlements of the 1990s.
The agreement resolves claims that Meta designed Instagram with features that could encourage addictive use among young people, exposed younger users to potential mental health harms and misrepresented aspects of the safety of its platforms.
“This settlement sends a clear message that Alabama will hold big tech accountable when it fails to protect our children online,” Marshall said. “Meta will pay millions of dollars to Alabama and has taken a critical step toward comprehensive reforms for youth safety. We will continue to monitor Meta to ensure compliance with the terms set forth in the settlement as well as to close off any loopholes predators and other bad actors might try to exploit.”
Under the settlement, Meta will be required to introduce several safety measures affecting children who use Instagram and Facebook.
Those measures include a combined two-hour daily time limit across the two platforms, along with mandatory “Productive Pauses” after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes. The limits are scheduled to remain in effect for five years. If Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube adopt comparable provisions, the daily limit on each Meta platform would decrease to 60 minutes for 10 years.
The agreement also calls for nighttime restrictions preventing access by children between midnight and 6 a.m. and limits on school-day notifications. Push notifications would be restricted between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays during the school year.
Additional provisions include enhanced age-verification measures, expanded parental controls and stronger safeguards intended to limit children’s exposure to content involving bullying, eating disorders, suicide and self-harm.
Meta will also be required to place limits on certain social-comparison features, including beauty filters and visible like counts.
An independent auditor and participating states will regularly assess both the implementation and effectiveness of the required changes.
Marshall’s office said the settlement is part of a broader effort targeting technology companies over concerns involving children and online platforms.
Earlier this year, the Attorney General announced a settlement with Roblox that included additional child-safety requirements and funding for school resource officers. Alabama has also filed a lawsuit against TikTok alleging the platform was designed to encourage addictive use by children and that parents were misled about its safety. According to the Attorney General’s Office, that case is scheduled for trial in September.
Marshall also recently announced an investigation into OpenAI related to alleged vulnerabilities involving an artificial intelligence model.
The Meta matter was handled internally by the Alabama Attorney General’s Civil and Consumer Protection divisions. According to Marshall’s office, the full $117,345,409 Alabama settlement amount will go to the State of Alabama.
