On Wednesday in the US, Meta agreed to an almost $17bn (£12.5bn) (€14.6bn) settlement and to make changes to Facebook and Instagram to resolve claims by states across the US that it designed those platforms to addict children, misled consumers about their safety and improperly collect children’s personal data.

ICCL Enforce wrote yesterday to Meta to ask whether they intend to extend the protections agreed in that settlement to children in Europe and if not to explain why not.

Part of the settlement is contingent on Meta’s competitors agreeing to take similar steps. ICCL have separately written to YouTube and TikTok to ask whether they will make the changes proposed by Meta and extend those to children in Europe.

AI expert with ICCL Enforce, Louise Hooper, said: “This is a landmark moment for big tech and the harms they have been wreaking on children and society more broadly. We welcome in principle the settlement of these social media safety lawsuits as a promising step in the battle to hold big tech accountable for harms.

“However, instead of agreement to change the platform design for the benefit of all children everywhere, the settlement appears restricted to the states participating in the litigation. It would seem that the platforms used by children in Ireland and Europe will be unchanged.

“We are also concerned that the measures will not result in fundamental change to provide ‘safety by design’ but instead push responsibility onto parents and caregivers to control children’s access to social media.

“Some measures such as the option for under 18s to have a non-personalised feed exist already. Independent monitoring and assessment of the impact of the changes and harm reduction will be of fundamental importance, as will whatever steps and actions follow those assessments.”