In August, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Nerohna P’19 P’22 secured at least $49.4 million earmarked for youth mental health programming in Rhode Island in a settlement with Meta, according to a press release from Neronha’s office. The lawsuit accused Meta of exposing youth to harmful content, misleading the public about safety and implementing intentionally addictive features on social media platforms that were targeted at minors.
Nationally, Meta will pay up to $17.1 billion to the coalition of 47 states, Washington, D.C, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands that brought legal action against the tech giant. According to the press release from Neronha’s office, the settlement is one of the largest in big-tech history.
Meta did not respond to The Herald’s request for comment.
The final payment amount will vary based on whether other social media companies — like those behind Snapchat and TikTok — reach similar settlements with the coalition. If those companies choose to settle, Rhode Island could receive over $64 million.
“Growing up in modern times presents a unique set of challenges, many of which are either attributable to or have been exacerbated by social media use and a lack of protection measures employed by the companies that host these platforms,” Neronha said in the press release.
“The ways in which our children engage with social media, and technology generally, are constantly changing, and as such, we must continue to adapt our approach to online safety,” he continued.
As part of the settlement, Meta must implement a number of safety features on Facebook and Instagram over the next ten years, including reduced access during nighttime and school hours and the removal of features such as like counts and beauty filters, according to legal documents reviewed by The Herald. While the proposed safety features will also include time limits, they will not apply to time spent messaging, using settings or consuming long-form content over 22 minutes long.
“This is a positive, small step,” State Rep. Tina Spears (D-36 Charlestown, South Kingstown, Westerly and New Shoreham) wrote in an email to the Herald. “We have much more work to do to protect children.”
A 2023 Gallup poll found that the average American teenager spent 4.8 hours on social media per day. In The Herald’s first-year poll, 46% of first-years said that they spent more than five hours per day online, while 5% indicated that they spent more than nine hours a day on screens.
The national lawsuit against Meta originated in 2021, when a coalition of states first began an investigation into the potential intentionality behind Instagram’s addictive features. In 2023 — the year Rhode Island joined the suit — the coalition officially sued Meta after discovering that the tech company had violated the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and state consumer protection laws.
This year, Spears sponsored a bill seeking to ban social media altogether for adolescents. While the bill ultimately failed in committee, she believes the settlement with Meta marks progress towards her mission.
Rep. Jennifer Boylan (D-66 Barrington and East Providence), who cosponsored Spears’s bill, was “pleased to see” the results of the settlement. “These giant tech corporations must be held accountable for standing up platforms that exploit and harm our kids while they raked in profits and misled the public about the risks,” she wrote in an email to The Herald.
“The obligation is on the business who is developing this technology to keep children safe,” Spears wrote.
Maxwell Silver is a senior staff writer covering health and environment.
