By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger
Meta has agreed to a 16.7 billion settlement in its teen social media harm case. It’s $17 billion for the next 10 years.
The stock went up nearly 4 percent on the news. It’s not the first time that Meta had to deal with a settlement. The tech giant settled with the FTC in 2019 over a privacy issue that was $5 billion.
The 47 states weren’t just asking for money. The states were also asking for changes to how Meta operates. The states’ accusations were a mix of consumer protections at the state level and one federal privacy law.
The main concern is that states saw Meta as irresponsible for keeping children hooked on social media apps for hours. Teenagers use Facebook and Instagram, especially past midnight.
With this settlement, we could see strict rules for teens not to use the apps between midnight and 6 am. Another healthy factor is to limit sending messages during school hours. Other companies like TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat will have to take similar action as well.
Social media addiction is a serious problem. Some parents are still grieving over their child’s death, which in some cases resulted from suicide. It’s heartbreaking to see the parents going through this.
AI infrastructure is growing and expanding day by day. It’s going to be critical for parents to be even more attentive to what their child is consuming on their phones. Gen Z is a sensitive generation and is more tech-savvy than previous generations. Parents must learn about AI relentlessly. Many of them aren’t paying much attention because they don’t know about AI or don’t want to educate themselves about it.
Change is scary, but everyone must learn about AI. Keeping children safe is the primary goal.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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