ParentsTogether Responds to Meta's Nearly $17 Billion Settlement Over Social Media Harms

This settlement is a watershed moment for the growing movement to protect children from addictive and dangerously designed tech. In addition to a record financial penalty, the state attorneys general secured real injunctive relief from Meta, including default time limits for minors, overnight blackout periods on Instagram, and an end to school-hours notifications, along with an independent auditor with genuine access to Meta’s systems and an injunction against further misleading the public about its safety practices. These commitments matter, and we’ll be watching closely to make sure they’re implemented fully and in good faith.

We thank the state attorneys general, the whistleblowers and litigators who built this case, and above all the survivor parents whose moral leadership made this possible: who kept this fight on the front pages, who showed up to court week after week, who continually made Meta look at photos of the children whose lives it cut short. Their courage has fueled a national reckoning that will continue until all kids are protected from every predatory tech platform whose business model is mining childhood for profit.

While Mark Zuckerberg failed to testify in this case, denying survivor parents an opportunity for justice and dodging questions about why the company designed its platforms to be addictive, Congress has the opportunity to get the answers the American people deserve. We call on the Senate Judiciary Committee to make good on Chairman Chuck Grassley's commitment to parents by subpoenaing Mark Zuckerberg and other Big Tech CEOs to answer for their dangerous products and for lying to the public. And as Congress advances federal online safety legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act, we urge lawmakers to set strong, clear standards for every platform while preserving states' and families' ability to sue. Federal law can raise the floor nationwide; access to the courts is what keeps companies honest in between. Our children deserve both.