Settlement Establishes Significant Steps Towards Accountability But Does Not Address Core Business Model Driving Harm

Design It For Us Co-Chair Sebastian Mahal released the following statement:

“Our movement has tirelessly pushed Meta to change the design of its products, and the outcome from today’s historic settlement will have a lasting impact. We applaud the Attorneys General who drove this fight, and we’re proud to be among the countless parents, young people, and advocates who relentlessly contribute their voices in pursuit of accountability. 

“This settlement creates a floor. When enforced, Meta will be required to put auditable guardrails around the existing product, including choice over chronological feeds and enforceable safety standards, backed by critical independent oversight paid for by Meta themselves. These are significant steps, but they could be made stronger with more consequences for failures to comply and improved design standards that are turned on by default, rather than by choice. 

“However, the provisions of this settlement still leave the product’s core engagement mechanics untouched. Meta dodged changing their business model, and they certainly dodged additional exposure through trial. While we commend that the settlement requires accountability and oversight of the company, the $17 billion settlement is merely a drop in the bucket for Meta. This is why safety-by-design approaches at the state and federal levels that address the business model—like the legislation we’ve supported in California, New Jersey, Vermont and Illinois—are so critical. Our legislators must act, and we’ll continue fighting to advance industry-wide, business model-level changes to secure lasting and wholesale accountability.” 

Design It For Us has led countless efforts to demand accountability from companies like Meta:

  • Coalition member Dawson Kelly joined survivor parents and advocates outside the courtroom during the start of the trial to talk about the human cost of Meta’s dangerous and addictive products and why we deserve to have online platforms designed for young people.
  • In April 2025, Design It For Us joined Parents Together and the Heat Initiative to host a rally at Meta’s headquarters in New York City. We delivered a petition of more than 10,000 signatures of young people and parents demanding meaningful accountability from Meta and Mark Zuckerberg.
  • Design It For Us partnered with Accountable Tech in May 2025 to release a test of the efficacy of Meta’s Teen Accounts’ protections. In the test, youth volunteers from the coalition created test accounts and recorded their experiences using Teen Accounts over the course of two weeks. Our test accounts found that Meta’s policies did not always work, including the fact that 5 out of 5 of our test Teen Accounts were algorithmically recommended sensitive content, despite Meta’s default sensitive content controls being enabled.
  • On the 1-year anniversary of the rollout of Teen Accounts in September 2025, Design It For Us advocate Alia ElKattan stood alongside Meta whistleblowers and parents in a press conference to call out Meta’s persistent refusal to be transparent and accountable to its users. 
  • Design It For Us advocates wore T-shirts that read “I’m Worth More Than $270” and stood behind Mark Zuckerberg while he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 2024 hearing on child safety. The $270 number refers to a Facebook employee’s email stating that “The lifetime value of a 13 y/o teen is roughly $270 per teen.” If awarded to all 30 million children, that amounts to roughly $270 in awards per child.

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About Design It For Us

Design It For Us is a youth-led coalition leveraging grassroots power to disrupt Big Tech’s harmful business models. The coalition is led by a team of people between the ages of 18 and 26 and supported by an array of youth-led organizations, staff, and advisors fighting for a better online world for everyone.