Meta settlement draws global calls for curbs

Staff writer, with Reuters and AFP Add TT as Preferred Source Meta Platforms Inc’s move to restrict teenagers’ use of social media in the US shows that companies have tools to better protect young people online, Australian officials said yesterday, as the EU and South Korea also called on Meta to address its “addictive design” following a landmark settlement.Meta on Wednesday agreed to pay up to US$18 billion over a decade and limit how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram under an agreement with nearly all US states to resolve claims that it designed those platforms to addict children. Meta denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.Governments around the world are trying to curb children’s access to harmful online content, including a world-first ban in Australia late last year on social me