Julie Frumin, a family therapist in Southern California, awoke Wednesday to an excited text from her mother-in-law. Meta had agreed to pay $17.1 billion and to make significant changes to settle claims that its products were addictive and endangered children.
Ms. Frumin was thrilled and quickly told her children, Ryan, 12, and Elyse, 9, and the family began discussing it at the breakfast table. The children immediately seized on what sounded to them like a huge number, $17.1 billion, and her son asked, “How much money do they have?”
Ms. Frumin said she responded, “I don’t know, but this is not that much for them.”
The exchange got to the heart of how some parents are reacting to the Meta settlement: It seems, at first blush, like a huge development, but after further reflection, it leads to a lot of questions and a recognition that more is needed to protect young people.
“We need legislation,” Ms. Frumin said. In her therapy practice, she’s seen young people experiencing what she described as “addiction” to their electronic gadgets. “We need these products to be safe by design.”
Across the country, parents described feeling some validation and a sense of victory. But they also felt uncertain about how the settlement will be enforced and skeptical that much of anything will change. In more than a few cases, the outcome seemed too little and too late.
Such is the case for Luke and Brittney Bird of Kronenwetter, Wis., whose son Bradyn, 15, died by suicide in 2025, hours after he was targeted by a sex scam on Facebook, the family said.
“No parent of a child who is a victim to something that happened on social media cares about how much money they end up with,” Ms. Bird, 37, said. “We care that we have a son, and we don’t anymore. Nothing fixes that.”
Mr. Bird, 46, also described the broader settlement as a “small victory” that has the potential to bring “big change.”
The exploding use of social media and mobile devices over the past 15 years has coincided with a spike in depression, anxiety and other mental health issues among young people. The science about whether social media directly causes these problems is nuanced, but experts said that, at a minimum, many teenagers have frequently opted for heavy screen time over healthier behaviors such as sleep and exercise.
Tech companies like Meta have previously argued that they had beefed up measures to protect young users, and that the Communications Decency Act shielded them from responsibility for content provided by its customers. On Wednesday, Meta’s chief legal officer said the company was hoping to set “a new industry standard” that others would follow.
The settlement distributes the money — a fraction of Meta’s $1.48 trillion overall value — among the 47 states that had sued Meta, as well as the District of Columbia and several U.S. territories. Tech companies like Meta have argued that they had previously beefed up measures to protect young users, and that the Communications Decency Act shielded them from responsibility for content provided by its customers.
In addition, Meta pledged, among other changes, to limit teenagers’ use of its platforms, remove some content that focuses on social comparisons, such as “like” counts, and block the use of “extreme makeup filters.”
The Meta agreement left some parents, including Eric Schlemann, 48, who has a tween and two teenagers, wondering how age restrictions and other limits would be enforced. The company has not detailed its plans. In the end, Mr. Schlemann said, parents must set boundaries for their children.
“There are a lot of parents who don’t pay attention to what their kids are doing on social media, so it is a conundrum,” Mr. Schlemann said.
He was gathered with other parents on Wednesday afternoon at a complex of soccer and softball fields in Germantown, Ohio. Another local parent, Todd Peck, 46, who has two children, 11 and 15, said he expects Meta to wind up figuring out how to satisfy its business needs.
“The social media companies are just like kids; they’ll find a way to get what they want. They’ll find ways to test the boundaries and get around it,” Mr. Peck said.
Meta officials said that one company alone cannot curb youth behavior. In a blog post on Wednesday, Meta’s chief legal officer wrote that “this framework will only work if all our peers join us,” adding: “Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industrywide solution.”
In response to the settlement, Matthew Mitchell, a leadership consultant in Des Moines and the parent of three kids ages 12, 16 and 18, said that what was ultimately needed was a regulatory system like the one that enforces automobile safety standards.
“If they agreed to pay $17.1 billion, part of me believes they feel they’re getting off easy,” he said on Wednesday evening, adding that families don’t stand a chance against “some of the most powerful organizations the world has ever seen.”
Mr. Mitchell, 48, said the use of social media is “a constant conversation” with his children, adding, “They’re all up against a system designed to capture and hold their attention.”
“As parents, we’re always told to go into these digital spaces with our children, to be present with them, to set better boundaries, and we absolutely should,” he said. “But I have felt that I’m being asked and required to fight these sophisticated systems and billion-dollar-funded companies one child at a time, one day at a time, and we’re just outgunned.”
Kevin Williams, Ann Klein, Robert Chiarito, Bernard Mokam and Leigh Giangreco contributed reporting.
