MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin is set to receive up to $313 million as part of a major legal settlement with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, after state officials alleged that the company deliberately engineered addictive social media features that harm children and teenagers. The Wisconsin Department of Justice announced that the state will receive an initial $219 million from the settlement, with the possibility of gaining up to $313 million more if separate agreements are reached with TikTok and YouTube, according to WisPolitics. The lawsuit accused Meta of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, not telling the public the full truth about the dangers of its platforms, and ignoring the risks those platforms posed to the mental and physical well-being of America’s youth. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said the resolution marks a turning point in how social media companies will be held accountable for their influence on young users. “This resolution provides for several changes that prioritize kids’ well-being over Meta’s profits,” Kaul said in a press release. The settlement includes not only financial compensation for the state but also a package of policy changes that Meta must implement across its platforms to reduce addiction and improve safety for minors. The announcement is part of a wave of state-level legal actions targeting social media companies over their impact on adolescent mental health.
The legal complaint behind the settlement detailed how Meta allegedly built Facebook and Instagram to be deliberately engaging, using features and algorithms that encouraged young users to stay online for long periods, often during times when they should have been sleeping or attending school. The state argued that these designs exploited the psychological vulnerabilities of teenagers and children, creating a cycle of compulsive use that many families found difficult to break. The lawsuit specifically accused Meta of hiding what it knew about the dangers of its platforms, including risks related to anxiety, depression, disrupted sleep, body image problems, and exposure to harmful content. By allegedly collecting and monetizing data from young users without proper safeguards, Meta also ran afoul of federal privacy rules that are specifically designed to protect children under 13. Kaul emphasized that the settlement is not just about money. The policy changes included in the agreement require Meta to introduce new safeguards against social media addiction, such as parental controls, screen time limits, and restricted access to the platforms during nighttime hours and school hours. Alongside those changes, the state will use its share of the funding to support programs aimed at helping young people navigate social media more safely.
University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Heather Kirkorian, who directs the Cognitive Development and Media Lab, offered a more nuanced view of what the research actually shows about social media and young people. In an interview with The Daily Cardinal, Kirkorian said the popular assumption that social media is universally harmful to children is not fully supported by the evidence. “We tend to think of there being really clear, strong evidence that there are these harms of social media, but in reality, the research is much more mixed,” Kirkorian said. She noted that social media can have positive effects as well, including helping young people maintain friendships, find communities of support, and explore their identities. The impact of social media, she said, depends on a range of individual factors, including a child’s existing mental health, family environment, and the specific ways they use the platforms. For some young people, social media can exacerbate feelings of isolation or expose them to cyberbullying and harmful comparisons; for others, it can be a lifeline. Kirkorian’s comments suggest that the settlement and the policies that follow will need to strike a careful balance between protecting children and preserving the benefits of digital connection.
Kaul said the settlement money will be used to fund statewide programs designed to help children navigate social media, including crisis intervention services and digital literacy counselors, according to WisPolitics. These programs are expected to work across schools and communities, providing resources for students who may be struggling with the negative effects of social media and for families who want help managing screen time. Crisis intervention services would offer immediate support for young people facing serious mental health emergencies, while digital literacy counselors would help students understand how platforms are designed to capture and hold their attention, how to identify harmful content, and how to make healthier choices online. Kirkorian said this kind of investment could be beneficial, but she cautioned that social media problems rarely exist in isolation. Young people who are most at risk of being harmed by social media often already face elevated risks for mental health difficulties due to factors such as systemic bias, family conflict, and social isolation. “These kinds of solutions that provide school-level, family-level, community-level interventions for mental health in general are likely to help kids in general and especially help the kids who are most at risk of harm from their technologies,” Kirkorian said. In that sense, the programs funded by the settlement may have their greatest impact by strengthening the broader mental health infrastructure around young people.
Under the terms of the settlement, Meta will also be required to change the way its platforms operate for younger users. The Wisconsin Department of Justice said the new policies will include parental controls, screen time limits, and limited access during the night and school hours. These changes are designed to shift the platforms away from an engagement-at-all-costs approach and give families more control over daily usage patterns. Kirkorian said safeguards like these are important, but she also stressed that platforms should be built with the needs of the people they are meant to protect in mind from the beginning. She pointed to the American Academy of Pediatrics’s Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health as a model for what that kind of collaborative design can look like. The Academy worked directly with teenagers to create a guide on what they actually want from social media, including healthier algorithms, more transparent design, and features that support well-being rather than endless scrolling. Kirkorian noted that this kind of youth involvement is often missing from the “grown-up spaces of legal matters” where social media regulation is debated. Without input from young users themselves, she warned, policies may miss the mark or create unintended consequences, such as pushing children toward less regulated corners of the internet.
Looking ahead, Kirkorian said it will be essential to include the voices of those who deal with social media and youth mental health every day. “I hope that any proposed solutions can incorporate the voices of folks on the ground,” she said. “So not just parents, but teens and teachers — folks who are really dealing with this on the ground in real time to make sure that things are meeting them where they’re at…not just what folks like me think their needs might be.” Her words underscore the tension between legal outcomes and real-world change. While the Meta settlement is a significant step forward, the long-term effectiveness of the agreement will depend on how the money is spent, how seriously Meta enforces its new policies, and whether additional settlements with TikTok and YouTube are completed. The additional funds Wisconsin could receive if agreements are reached with those platforms would likely expand the state’s ability to invest in mental health resources and digital literacy programs. For now, officials are portraying the settlement as a victory for families and a strong message to social media companies that profiting from children’s vulnerability is no longer acceptable. As Wisconsin begins the work of implementing the resolution, experts like Kirkorian are calling for a measured, evidence-based approach that recognizes both the risks and the benefits of the digital world young people have grown up in.
