STATEMENT: Survivor Parents Respond to Meta's Historic $17B Settlement

(Washington, D.C.) — Today, Parents for Safe Online Spaces (ParentsSOS), a coalition of families who have lost children due to online harms, issued the following statement in response to Meta’s lawsuit settlement with 47 states that highlights how their platforms have endangered children’s lives through its addictive, harmful design:

“As survivor parents who have lost children to online harms, we are grateful for this watershed moment — the most significant accountability yet for Meta’s harmful and addictive design,” said ParentsSOS co-founder Maurine Molak.

“The $17.1 billion fine will never bring our children back but underscores the growing movement to protect children from online harms. We are grateful for the multiple attorneys general involved in this case and their commitment to protecting youth and children from Meta’s harmful platforms. 

“The injunctive relief — including restricting night-time use, turning some harmful features off by default, and subjecting Meta to new monitoring requirements — will make a huge difference for America’s families. 

“The settlement also sheds light yet again on the need for Congress to step up and finally pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) this year. We need a duty of care to ensure that Meta stops designing for addiction both now and in the future and that our children are protected no matter what platform they use. 

“KOSA has robust, bipartisan support from over three-quarters of the US Senate. We need Congress to build on this momentum, and we call on our Senate leaders to bring the bill to a floor vote next month before we lose more children to online harms.” ■