Make Social Media Settlement Dollars Count for Youth

We have an opportunity to invest in what helps young people thrive.

Meta settlement – and future social media litigation payouts – could generate billions in resources intended to address harms affecting young people.

This creates an important opportunity to invest in the people, programs, and supports that help young people thrive.

But a settlement does not determine its own impact. States will decide where resources go, who helps shape those decisions, and how the public will know whether the investments made a difference.

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5 Principles for Use of Funds from Social Media Lawsuits

Fund IRL’s Guidance on the Use of Funds from Social Media Lawsuits offers five principles to help states ensure settlement resources meaningfully benefit young people. The Meta settlement creates an opening. Fund IRL’s Guidance can help states turn it into meaningful opportunity where it matters most.

Funds should be used to measurably prevent, mitigate, and remediate harms associated with social media use and promote off-screen connection and resilience for children, youth, and young adults.

Funds should prioritize investments across the behavioral health continuum, including universal access to youth programs and third spaces where young people can gather, play, learn, and connect; targeted interventions; and support for children with intensive behavioral health needs. Supports should span a range of community, school, and clinical settings.

Funds should be directed toward policies and programs that demonstrate alignment with research-based youth development and mental health frameworks or ones that are being studied for impact. Allocation decisions should be informed by data on child and youth needs and gaps in access to programs and services.

Youth and family members, educators, clinicians, researchers, community-based organizations, and community leaders should have a formal role in shaping funding decisions and overseeing program outcomes. Decision-making processes should be structured to ensure funds are allocated equitably, and funding decisions should be transparent and publicly available online.

All school-age children, youth, and young adults should have access to high-quality programs and services that strengthen well-being and mental health, with particular attention paid to meeting the needs of underserved youth and those disproportionately impacted by social media harms. Funds should help connect young people to in-person programs and services and address barriers that limit participation.

Three ways states can invest in youth well-being

In Real Life

Give young people more to connect to.

Invest in the people, programs and places

Afterschool and summer programs, sports, arts, mentoring, outdoor experiences, libraries, youth leadership and other community opportunities. Invest where young people build relationships, discover what they love and feel like they belong.

Safe Digital Engagement

Help young people feel more confident and supported online.

Invest in Digital Safety Measures

Give young people, families and trusted adults the skills and tools to navigate digital life safely and well.

Digital citizenship and literacy, cyberbullying prevention, family education, youth leadership and digital well-being.

Mental Health Supports

Make support easier to reach, before a challenge becomes a crisis.

Invest across the continuum of youth mental health and well-being

Prevention, early intervention, community-based support, treatment and crisis response.

Fund IRL brings together national, state, and local organizations working to ensure resources from social media litigation are invested back into young people and the programs, relationships, and opportunities that help them thrive.

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