Follow the money. If you want to know how the tech giant Meta really feels about the $18bn it agreed to fork out to end a landmark lawsuit against it – an outcome widely hailed as a victory for campaigners – just look at its share price. It didn’t go down when word came on Wednesday that Meta had settled with the 29 US states that had argued that the company’s Facebook and Instagram platforms harmed children. On the contrary, Meta stock went up, initially surging by 5%, before levelling out at a gain of just over 1.25%. There could be no clearer proof that the money men reckon Meta dodged a bullet.

To be sure, there was plenty to hearten those who have long believed that social media damages teenagers especially, whether by exposing them to content they shouldn’t see or by sapping their self-esteem, offering them filters that show how much prettier they would look if they had cosmetic surgery or giving them a metric of their popularity – and unpopularity – in the form of a running tally of “likes” and views.

For one thing, $18bn is a lot of money. For another, Meta has agreed to a series of changes in the way young people use their platforms. There’ll be a two-hour daily cap on use; restricted access during the night and the school day; likes will not be shown automatically and assorted safety and parental supervision measures will no longer be opt-in extras but the default standard. You can see why Lori Schott of Colorado, who believes the content her daughter encountered on Instagram played a part in her suicide aged 18, declared Wednesday to be “a good day”.

But look closer and you see that, for Meta, $18bn is not exactly a bank-breaking sum. It amounts to less than a month’s revenue. And it has 10 years to pay it out: the monthly payments could come out of petty cash. What’s........

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