Today’s Meta settlement is a significant moment in the fight to protect children online. The agreement, reached with a bipartisan coalition representing 47 states, includes up to $17.1 billion in payments and sweeping new safety requirements for Facebook and Instagram.
The Warriorsđź’™will take every win for kids. We applaud the parents who have spent years telling their stories, the advocates and organizations who refused to let this issue disappear and the attorneys general who took on one of the most powerful companies in the world. The pressure worked. Meta is being required to make changes that should have been made long ago, including stronger age assurance, limits on minors’ time, nighttime restrictions, reduced notifications and additional parental controls. But let’s be Warriorsđź’™clear: a settlement does not erase the harm. Money cannot bring our precious children back.
For the families who lost a child, who watched their child suffer, or who continue to live with consequences that can never be undone, this is not the end of the story. And Meta has not admitted wrongdoing as part of the agreement. To every parent who stood up and said, “This happened to my child”: we see you. To every organization and advocate that kept the pressure on: keep going. And to every child whose name must never be reduced to a statistic: we will say their names. Annalee, David, Becca, Mason, Walker, Riley, Selena, Carson, Elijah, Gavin, Jordan and so many, many more.
A settlement can be a step forward. It cannot be the finish line. Now is the time to demand that these protections are actually implemented, independently monitored and enforced. Now is the time to keep pressure on TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and every platform whose products reach our children. And now is the time for parents, advocates, lawmakers, attorneys general, researchers and child-safety organizations to stay engaged and keep fighting for accountability, not just promises. The children we lost are not a line item. Their lives mattered. Their families matter. And the children still with us deserve better.
We remember. We speak. We advocate. We act. And we will not stop fighting for our children. #BeAWarriorđź’™