Meta has reached the parental-negotiation stage of its child-safety settlement: what about the other platforms?
The Verge reports that the company agreed to a $17.1 billion settlement over allegations its platforms were designed to be addictive to children. It can pay $5.3 billion instead if YouTube and TikTok adopt stricter child-safety settings too. Meta has also agreed to stronger safeguards as part of the settlement.
This is a remarkable improvement on the traditional everybody-else-does-it defense. Everybody else must now stop doing it, and Meta gets a discount.
Its latest earnings include a $9.89 billion settlement expense. Meta helpfully calculated that operating income would have been $22.89 billion without it. Meta has to commit to safer behavior, its competitors have homework, and shareholders get to visit a quarter where none of this came out of the money.
Make powerful people uncomfortable.
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