AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Meta has reached a deal with a coalition of state attorneys general. This holds a major child safety trial just one week after it began in Oakland. So what does that mean for social media companies and for the parents and others suing them? Well, Rachael Myrow of member station KQED has been following this case in court and joins us now. Hi, Rachael.
RACHAEL MYROW, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so these state attorneys who were led by Rob Bonta here in California, they had been alleging that Meta intentionally designed these platforms to hook kids. What are those states saying now about today's settlement?
MYROW: The agreement is worth up to $17 billion over 10 years, and the states insisted on major changes to Facebook and Instagram to make them less sticky to kids. For example, users under 18 face a default two-hour daily limit and an overnight block from midnight to 6 a.m. Both those things would be under parental control. At a press conference this morning, Bonta said the deal wouldn't have been possible without the lawsuit.
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ROB BONTA: They didn't agree voluntarily out of the goodness of their heart. We had a trial where we were hammering them. We had a litigation and a trial verdict hanging over their head, which was not going well for them.
MYROW: He called this proposed settlement a, quote, "enforceable blueprint."
CHANG: Yeah. But I know that you've been talking with parents and with child advocates. How do they feel about this, quote-unquote, "enforceable blueprint"?
MYROW: One of the biggest advocates lobbying for digital child safety is Jim Steyer of the nonprofit Common Sense Media. He said he's been seeing legislative progress in a number of states but not at the federal level across Republican and Democratic administrations. Steyer called this settlement with Meta a watershed moment.
JIM STEYER: There's no question that the courts have become the most important area for redress in holding the big social media platforms accountable for the harms that they've caused.
MYROW: Steyer adds Silicon Valley lobbyists has spent a massive amount of money trying to block legislation for years, a strategy that now appears to be backfiring in the courts and in public opinion polls. I also talked with Victoria Hinks of Marin County, who's suing a number of social media companies in a separate lawsuit. She argues her teenage daughter's suicide was linked to what algorithms showed her in her feeds. Like a number of local parents, she's been watching this trial in the courthouse in Oakland. The states were asking for as much as $1.4 trillion before the trial began. This settlement just a fraction of that, but Hinks said $17 billion is still a lot.
VICTORIA HINKS: Unfortunately, it's the only language they understand is money, and it needs to hurt a little bit for them to make changes so that it doesn't happen again.
MYROW: Now, Ailsa, there are thousands of lawsuits pending against Meta, some of which Meta is appealing, some it's settled. This settlement the judge has just signed off on would resolve most of the state lawsuits but not individual, personal injury lawsuits like Hinks or lawsuits brought by school districts.
CHANG: OK. That said, Meta has entered into this particular settlement. What are they saying exactly about the agreement?
MYROW: They've denied the allegations in court, but here's Meta's head of legal, Steve (ph) Mahoney, in a recorded statement calling on other social media companies to adopt similar controls.
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C J MAHONEY: But this framework will only work if all our peers join us. Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industrywide solution. We, therefore, call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework right away.
CHANG: That is Rachael Myrow from KQED. Thank you, Rachael.
MYROW: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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