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Meta’s $18B settlement and new restrictions are vital — but the company didn’t put $1,000 phones in kids’ hands

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On Wednesday, Meta agreed to a record $18 billion settlement with nearly every US state over claims that its social-media platforms were deliberately designed to addict children and teenagers. But the enormous financial payout is surprisingly less consequential than another part of the agreement: For the first time, Meta is being forced to build meaningful barriers between children and the products it has spent years carefully designing to keep them online.

The changes are significant. Accounts belonging to users under 18 will face “productive pauses” that interrupt prolonged scrolling, restrictions at night and during school hours, stronger parental controls and limits on social-comparison features such as beauty filters and visible like counts. These changes undercut these companies’ built-in features designed to make these platforms so difficult for children to put down in the first place.

For years, the debate over children and social media has been in a standoff. Tech companies have pretended the entire solution is better parenting, while many parents bought a $1,000 smartphone for their 12-year-olds, let them download Instagram and then threw up their hands, acting like the fact that kids spend six hours a day scrolling is an act of God.

As usual, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

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