Editors’ Notes
Social media addiction is a bipartisan issue. Both sides agree that it’s a problem that’s negatively affecting children’s mental health and ability to learn: the question is how to solve it. The left is more likely to gravitate toward increased regulations for social media companies and government intervention, while some on the right are more skeptical of the government’s ability to create change and may favor a personal agency argument.
The solution we were given this week comes in the form of a major settlement from Meta, but will it actually change things? Whether billions of dollars are still enough to change the morality of mega corporations remains to be seen.
News about the Meta Settlement
Meta settled a landmark case with 29 states regarding social media addiction among minors. The lawsuit against the Instagram and Facebook owner alleged that the company intentionally misled the public about the safety of the platforms. The nearly $18 billion settlement also includes changes to the platform such as a two-hour daily limit, no notifications during school hours, blocking usage from midnight to 6 a.m., and disabling likes. The changes will be the default settings for minors rather than its previous opt-in approach.
Read more:
- Meta Agrees to New Facebook, Instagram Limits for Teens in $18 Billion Settlement
- Back to School, Behind on Reading: Why America’s Literacy Crisis Persists
Analysis and Opinions about Meta’s Case
Opinions from the right and the left generally approved of Meta’s changes, but writers were split on whether this was social media’s “big tobacco moment” or wouldn’t make a much of a dent in its earnings. Some on the right called on parents to take more ownership over their children’s actions online rather than expecting the courts to intervene.
Jonathan Turley (Lean Right) wrote, “Some of us were skeptical of the legal basis for some of these claims. The line between a popular and an ‘addictive’ product is fairly subjective…Ironically, if social media is as addictive as claimed by litigants, the market is equally inelastic. Big media will be able to easily recoup these damages, as did Big Tobacco…Meta did not create these social costs alone. We all did. We find ourselves overwhelmed by a technology with endless applications and potential for expression. This settlement will not erase those social costs any more than the tobacco settlement erased cancer or the opiate settlement erased addiction. The ultimate child-protection regulation will remain parents monitoring and educating their own children.”
A Bloomberg (Center) columnist wrote, “Make no mistake, while the amount that the company agreed to pay to settle a lawsuit brought by several states — up to $18 billion — is large, it is dwarfed in significance by the long-tail positive effects this so-called Big Tobacco moment will have on the well-being of teens…This settlement is tangible progress and proof that a well-constructed case can bring accountability to technology companies.”
A Guardian (Left) piece said, “The changes may be powerful enough to alter teens’ behavior and curb social media’s worst ills, they may not, but the attorney generals did what the US Congress never has: compel a social media company to change its operations to protect children. Forcing Meta to rework how its social networks operate by default on a level that parents and children will notice is a major concession by the company. It is the first time in the US that Meta has been forced to change key features of the experience of its social networks’ everyday users.”
A Newsweek (Center) analysis read, “But the broader enforcement problem is one of scale. A financial settlement can be extraordinary in absolute dollars—boggling to mere mortals like ourselves—while remaining absorbable relative to the company paying it. For regulators trying to change corporate incentives, the meaningful number is therefore more complicated than the headline amount that shocks the rest of us… American corporate power has reached a scale at which $16.68 billion can sound historic and yet still entirely affordable. Profitable even, for shareholders who just enjoyed a 4.4 percent bounce in their Meta holding. All on the backs of our children.”
