Meta's $17B Deal Imposes Teen Curfew, Limits

Houchin, an Indiana Republican, told the markup that a private deal is no substitute for a law. "One company acting under the pressure of litigation is not enough. A settlement binds one defendant, but it sets no standard for an industry," she said. She added: "We shouldn't consider the outcome, though, of a court case as a reason to stop our work."

Rep. Kathy Castor, a Florida Democrat, called the settlement a "call to action to make sure that whatever comes out of the Congress is the strongest possible." She said, "There may be some things to codify that are contained in that settlement, so it doesn't just apply to Meta, it applies to all platforms."

The Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., posted that the settlement "makes clear the gravity of the dangers facing our children and underscores the need for comprehensive legislation to protect them from online harms." Guthrie added: "Without further legislation, the threats facing our kids will continue."

Dani Pinter, chief legal officer at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation's law center, said Congress should start with the Senate bill. "KOSA is like the very, very, very… lowest denominator. It's asking for the very bare minimum, a duty of care," she said.

Free speech and privacy groups are alarmed. Cody Venzke, an attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, praised the algorithm opt-out but warned that "the government … being the 52 attorneys general that signed on to the settlement here, is seeking to do through a settlement agreement what they could not do through legislation."

Kate Ruane of the Center for Democracy and Technology's Free Expression Project said age checks burden speech: "Applying age assurance to all of their users in order to access certain speech on the platform, I think goes beyond what the Constitution could require." She noted courts have found mandated curfews, time limits and hiding like counts "constitutionally problematic" — and the settlement includes all three.

Writing in The Guardian, Joan Donovan argued the settlement is reason for Mark Zuckerberg to resign, calling the CEO the throughline in a history of billion-dollar blunders that caused real harm. An MSNBC opinion piece cautioned that phone bans and platform restrictions are not a cure-all for the youth mental health crisis.