Meta owes Arizona $223 million for harming teen mental health on social media.
That is Arizona's share of a $17.1 billion multi-state deal in which the company promised to change its practices.
The settlement with Meta marks one of the largest consumer protection settlements since the multistate Big Tobacco settlement in 1998, and Attorney General Kris Mayes marked it as a high point in her time in the office.
“This is the most important thing I think I will ever do as attorney general,” Mayes said. “It's going to change the face of social media forever.”
Per the settlement agreement, Meta agreed to adopt a long list of new measures to stymie teen social media use and pay a total of at least $17.1 billion.
Meta must now age-verify users and implement a combined two-hour daily time limit on Instagram and Facebook for teens aged 13 to 17, with mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of scrolling, then again at 60 and 90 minutes.
Teens will be unable to access social media between midnight and 6 a.m. and will not receive push notifications during school days.
And the platforms will no longer include beauty filters, “like” counts, and work to restrict cyberbullying and content promoting eating disorders, suicide and self-harm.
Meta also agreed to urge platforms like TikTok and YouTube to follow suit.
“The framework we’ve negotiated will empower parents to easily manage how their children access our platforms,” C.J. Mahoney, chief legal officer at Meta said in a statement. “Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution.”
Mayes agreed.
“We now have to get all these other social media companies on board,” she said.
Mayes, mother of 13-year-old Hattie, spoke of her own challenges in monitoring social media use.
“There's so many parents out there who are struggling just to make you know ends meet,” Mayes said.
“They're working two, three, four jobs, and then their fifth job has to be policing their kids' use of social media,” she said. “It becomes totally impossible.”
Changes to Instagram and Facebook will take effect immediately after judicial approval of the settlement agreement, with the majority of terms required to remain in place for at least ten years.
Arizona first joined the multi-state legal fight against Meta in October 2023.
Mayes, alongside 41 attorneys general, alleged features on Meta's platforms Instagram and Facebook had effectively addicted children to social media and caused a swell of damage to mental and physical health.
Since the complaint was filed, litigation has expanded to encompass 48 states and four U.S. territories.
Fight over settlement spending
The settlement also lays out how the money can be spent, with clearance to pay for school programs, crisis intervention services, mental health programming and generally any purpose to remediate social media addiction.
Arizona will receive the first payment in 30 days, and another payment in January.
But splitting up the settlement dollars tees up another funding tussle between the Attorney General and the legislature.
Mayes said Wednesday her priority is to fund mental health counseling in public schools.
But Republican leadership plans to stake their claim in how the funds are spent, too, and expressed early opposition to limiting mental health funding to public education.
State law directs the Attorney General to administer consumer restitution funds, but every other settlement dollar received but not specifically earmarked by court order goes to its own bank account.
The Attorney General may use the fund to address violations of consumer protection laws but the office is required to submit an expenditure plan to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee before spending a dime, and any amount in excess of $4 million annually is subject to legislative appropriation.
Mayes said the office is still working out the plan for distribution but expects to unveil more details in the coming weeks. But her office already has ideas on how to speed the money.
“This money needs to go to our schools,” the attorney general said.
“I want a significant amount of this money to go to our public schools for mental health, and to help our kids who already are addicted to social media,” she said. “That's my personal priority. That's what I'll be working on.”
Senate President Warren Petersen said any final plan from Mayes should be “transparent, accountable and focused on the people harmed.”
“Attorney General Kris Mayes does not get to unilaterally decide how $223 million in taxpayer money is spent,” Petersen said. “The Legislature will carefully review the settlement and determine how these dollars can best serve all Arizonans, including addressing youth mental health, not just those attending public schools.”
There's a political element to all of this: Petersen is the Republican nominee for attorney general and is trying to unseat Mayes in November.
Mayes has fought before with state lawmakers over how to divide up funds received as part of a lawsuit.
Last year the attorney general got a temporary restraining order against both Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Republican-controlled Legislature after they diverted $115 million from money the state got following the settlement of litigation with opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies. She argued the funds, part of a $1.14 billion multi-year deal, were going to be spent in ways not approved within the settlement agreement.
That victory was short-lived: The judge dissolved the order just days later, saying Mayes had presented no evidence that the budget plan, which included funding for the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry, violated the terms of the deal.