Buried in Meta’s $18B settlement is a legal pass on kids’ data

In addition to paying out up to $18 billion and adding child safety measures , Meta’s settlement agreement with attorneys general from 29 states includes an interesting provision: The states have agreed not to sue Meta under existing child safety laws over its retention and use of children’s data. That permission is being granted for the limited purpose of training and testing Meta’s age-assurance model and includes guardrails, but it’s a curious policy decision to make in a case centered on child safety, and one that could be difficult to properly enforce. As specified in the settlement agreement, Meta must develop, train, and begin testing a model designed to detect which users on Meta’s platforms are under the age of 13. This must be done within a year of the document’s effective date. (While the agreement doesn’t specify that the model has to be AI-based, Meta’s current age-detection tools are powered by AI technology.) Under U.S. child safety law, COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) typically requires that websites and apps limit the collection and retention of children’s personal information. Meta’s settlement agreement says that Meta shouldn’t need to violate COPPA to train or implement its age-assurance models. However, the agreement also says that the state AGs have agreed “fully, finally, and forever” not to bring any past, present, or future COPPA claims — or claims under similar state laws — related to Meta’s use of children’s data. The agreement makes clear that Meta can’t use data from users under age 13 for ad targeting, marketing, or algorithmic optimization. Meta’s request for legal protection, and the state AGs’ willingness to grant it, isn’t unreasonable, says Philip N. The startup community will gather to answer a pivotal question: How do you build sustainably in the AI era? Fitbit founders launch Luffu Link, an LTE health and safety band Two years after launch, Walmart’s Flipkart is closing in on India’s quick-commerce leaders Inherent, founded by DeepMind alumni, says its AI ‘teammate’ just outperformed Anthropic and OpenAI at replicating research Michael Polansky is training an AI model on skin that’s still alive How AI accounting startup Rillet raised $100M and became a unicorn in 48 hours Tesla’s solar roof is dead — here’s what went wrong Oura faces lawsuit accusing it of misleading consumers about sleep-tracking accuracy