(The Center Square) – Mississippi is set to receive nearly $189 million over the next decade as part of a multi-state settlement with Meta that will also impose new limits on how minors use Facebook and Instagram.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced Wednesday that Mississippi will receive $188.98 million under the agreement. The state’s potential recovery could grow to about $270.4 million if TikTok and YouTube adopt similar protections and make payments required under the settlement’s incentive structure.
The agreement, which is subject to court approval, includes about $12.7 billion in guaranteed payments from Meta to participating states and territories over 10 years. Another roughly $5.3 billion from Meta is contingent on TikTok and YouTube adopting specified protections and each making matching payments.
Meta described the total potential agreement as approximately $18 billion, while state attorneys general have described the national remediation portion as worth up to $17.1 billion.
Mississippi is one of 52 attorneys general from states, territories and the District of Columbia participating in the agreement. The settlement stems from a nationwide investigation that began in 2021 into allegations that social media companies designed and promoted platforms to children and teenagers despite knowing about potential harms.
“Big Tech has been conducting a social experiment on our children’s developing brains by making platforms that were purposefully addictive and preyed on children’s greatest vulnerabilities,” Fitch said in announcing Mississippi’s participation.
The agreement requires Meta to make several changes affecting users younger than 18.
Facebook and Instagram will have a combined two-hour daily time limit for teen users that can be overridden only with a parent’s permission. The platforms will also block most teen access between midnight and 6 a.m. by default and mute most push notifications between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Direct messaging is exempt from those restrictions.
Teen users will receive prompts after every 15 minutes of continuous use and after reaching 60 and 90 minutes of total daily use. They will also have the option of using a non-algorithmic feed and turning off autoplay, settings parents can require. Like and reaction counts will be hidden by default, and Meta agreed to block cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters for teens.
The company also agreed to strengthen technology used to identify users who may be younger than 13 or teenagers who provide an adult birth date. Meta will maintain age-appropriate content restrictions and expand parental controls, including notifications when a teenager links a secondary account.
Meta Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said the agreement establishes rules that will give parents more control over their children’s use of the company’s platforms.
“Our new Time Limit commitments, Night Mode features and usage limits during school hours set the right path forward for our whole industry, but this framework will only work if all our peers join us,” Mahoney said.
Meta is calling on TikTok and YouTube to adopt the same framework. If both companies meet the settlement’s requirements, Meta’s daily limit would eventually change from two cumulative hours across Facebook and Instagram to one hour per app, while the overnight restriction would expand from midnight to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
The majority of the settlement’s requirements will remain in place for 10 years. An independent auditor will review Meta’s compliance annually for five years, and the agreement will establish an independent research foundation that can use consented user data to study teen well-being.
The settlement also resolves claims related to Meta’s sharing of nonpublic Facebook user information with third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, before the 2016 election. Meta does not admit wrongdoing under the agreement.
The settlement was reached as a civil trial was underway in California over allegations that Meta failed to protect young users.