Meta to pay Texas $1 billion in child safety case

Social media giant Meta will pay over $1 billion to Texas and implement sweeping protections for children as part of a settlement with the state, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday.

The settlement comes as Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, tentatively agreed to a $17 billion payout to resolve a separate lawsuit brought by 33 states, which Texas was not a part of. The historic settlement, the first of this scale from a social media company, will end the ongoing trial in that case.

As part of Texas’ settlement, Meta will apply stricter age verification measures and institute a daily two-hour limit for teens. All notifications from these platforms will be disabled by default during school hours, and the company will create a nighttime mode to restrict access for teens, Paxton said in a press release.

“It is my mission to fundamentally change and strengthen the standards for child safety online, and this settlement is a major step forward in the fight to ensure our kids are protected online,” Paxton said.

The case marks Paxton’s second settlement with Meta for north of $1 billion. In 2024, the tech giant agreed to pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of using personal biometric data without users’ authorization.

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