California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Meta’s proposed $17 billion settlement with 51 state attorneys general was significant evidence that the company’s defence was faltering during a trial over alleged harms to children and teenagers from Instagram and Facebook. The agreement, which still requires federal judicial approval, would impose new protections for under-18s and could increase pressure on other social media companies to adopt similar measures.

The trial began in California on 18 August, and Meta settled during Instagram head Adam Mosseri’s testimony, before chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was due to appear. Prosecutors highlighted internal evidence that only 1.8% of teenagers used Instagram’s “Take a Break” feature, despite promotional claims that over 90% of users kept it enabled; proposed remedies include a default two-hour daily limit requiring parental approval to extend, overnight and school-hour restrictions, and hiding like and reaction counts for minors. Bonta said California would continue litigation against TikTok and urged Snap and YouTube to consider equivalent safeguards.