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mental health. As a result of this settlement, Wisconsin is set to receive

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$219 million and we could receive up to $313 million if certain industry

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conditions are met. Now the next step is determining where the funding is going

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to be directed. What I'm going to be doing is everything I can to put these

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funds for keeping kids safe in Wisconsin. Some potential examples of how these

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funds could be used include crisis intervention services, after school

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programming, digital wellness, youth mental health programming, supporting the

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hiring of digital literacy counselors, and training for medical providers on

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interactive media use and body dysmorphia. And then last they could also

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go to grants for school district to support mental health. These numbers make

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this the largest big tech settlement in the history of the country. It's also

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the largest state consumer protection settlement ever aside from those in

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involving big tobacco in a case where there's a single company that's

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settling. From my perspective though, more important than the dollars we're

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talking about are the sweeping new safety measures for kids that meta is

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going to be required to implement as a direct result of this settlement

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agreement. These changes are not only going to help reduce farms for kids

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mental health online, but I hope they can set a new standard for the entire

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industry so that kids who are using social media can stay safe and remain

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healthy as they're online. We want to see this agreement prompt other companies

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to make similar changes. Now the changes that meta is going to be required to

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implement are groundbreaking and they go beyond anything previously ordered by

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a court. As Attorney General Public Safety is my top priority and keeping

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kids safe is of the utmost importance. The challenges that kids face today are

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fundamentally different than the safety challenges that I faced as a kid. When I

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was a kid, we would talk about people would talk about looking both ways before

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you crossed the street. Now kids spend a lot of their time online. They are in a

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digital world and making sure that we are taking actions to keep kids safe is

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fundamental to what we do at the OJ to protect public safety and is at the

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root of this agreement. So today it takes a concerted effort from kids but also

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their parents and their family members from schools and from communities to

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prioritize real-world interactions and learning. And it takes just as robust an

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effort to protect kids from the threats that they face online. Threats that range

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from exploitation to extortion to addiction and isolation as well as

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mental health harms from addiction to social media. The world is changing

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rapidly and it's part of Wisconsin DOJ's mission to meet this moment by

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combating the new threats that social media poses to our kids mental health

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and to take those challenges head-on. That's why I had a coalition of HEs from

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other states sued medical platforms in October 2023 following our multi-state

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investigation. In our lawsuit we alleged that the company knowingly designed and

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employed harmful features on Instagram and other social media platforms that

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purposely addict children and teens. We've also alleged that

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meta falsely assured the public that these features are safe and suitable for

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young users. Instead of taking steps to address those harms we alleged that

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meta concealed the extent of the psychological and health harms suffered

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by young users addicted to its platforms. Beyond this the company is alleged to

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have known that young users some under the age of 13 were active on the

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platforms and knowingly collected data from those users without parental consent.

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In addition to those allegations our suit alleged that meta targeted these

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young users and described that such a user base was quote valuable but untapped

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unquote. Well this settlement resolves those claims as well as other claims by

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other settling states and territories. So today as part of this settlement with

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Wisconsin and a coalition meta has agreed to implement significant new

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kids safety features on Instagram and Facebook. As I said before these are

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some transformative features that are in place. For those who are under 13 they

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are not supposed to be on these platforms and they're going to be stronger age

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verification measures in place. For those between the ages of 13 from ages of

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13 to 17. This agreement will create a combined two hour daily limit for both

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Facebook and Instagram in total. There will be mandatory pauses at 15 minutes 60

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minutes and 90 minutes. The goal of that is to help interrupt what my kids would

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refer to as doom scrolling online. There are also restrictions on nighttime

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access. Those will limit the hours when these platforms are available to kids.

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There are going to be limits on school time access as well. Specifically there's

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going to be an elimination of push notifications during school hours. As I

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mentioned there are going to be more robust age assurance measures and they're

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going to be safer age appropriate content controls in place. Including

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stronger safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders and

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content related to suicide and self harm. They're going to be stronger more

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friendly user friendly parental controls in place as well. So parents are going to

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be able more easily to play a larger role in limiting their kids use of these

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platforms. And there are going to be limits on social comparison features including

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certain beauty filter filters and visible light counts that have been linked to

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poor mental health outcomes in kids and teens. Now these are groundbreaking new

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changes that are geared toward making social media safer for kids and

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providing parents with stronger tools to be involved in their kids online lives.

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There's no doubt that that this settlement is historic but it's also my

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sincere hope that this is an inflection point where after these changes go into

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effect and after today's settlement agreement has now been announced other

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big tech firms and social media companies beyond meta will hear our message that

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we are committed to getting accountability from social media companies

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that engage in conduct that farms our kids and now is the time for them to

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make the kind of sweeping changes in the name of kids safety online. These

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changes will be implemented over a period of time. Most of the changes will go into

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effect within six months of the judgment and there will be some changes soon as

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two months from the entry of the judgment. This is a fundamental change in the way

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that kids are going to social media will play a role in kids lives at least with

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respect to Instagram and Facebook and we are committed to ensuring that we are

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doing what we can to keep our kids safe from these online arms. So with that I'll

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take any questions that folks may have.

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All right everyone a little bit of housekeeping so we're now going to take on

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topic questions for media members. If you have a question please raise your hand

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and we will call on you in the order in which you ask your question. Once we call

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on you we will promote you to panelists that you may speak this might take a

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second. As a reminder if you're on your phone you can press star nine to raise

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or lower your hand and star six to mute or unmute yourself once you're

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called on. We will begin momentarily.

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Mitchell Smith.

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Yeah yeah thank you very much for the for the time today. You had mentioned early on

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that Wisconsin is set to receive I think you I believe you said it was 219 million

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or up to 313 million instead of if certain industry conditions are met would you

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be possible to kind of expand on that a little bit and then if there'd be any

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sort of info on the timing for these funds.

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Yeah there are a couple aspects of the settlement that will be strengthened if

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there are other agreements reached or other conditions imposed on other

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social media companies. So first with respect to some of the limits that I

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talked about for the limits for example on nighttime hour usage as well as the

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time limits per day. If TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube are subject to similar

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limits then they will apply even stronger here. In terms of the

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settlement amounts if we receive resolutions of a certain amount from

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TikTok as well as YouTube then that would lead to the

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four amount being recovered as part of the settlement we can get to the

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precise numbers on what those those are required to be but there's a lot

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there's some nuance to it because if we as a state receiver proportion of the

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total amount that would trigger the the obligations that Meta has towards

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Wisconsin or if nationwide there's a certain amount that could also trigger

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the applications.

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All right next up is Vanessa.

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Hi thank you. Where does the suit stand in terms of the other apps you

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mentioned like a TikTok or Snapchat? If all these restrictions are just being

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put in place for Instagram and Facebook I could imagine that would drive kids

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just to use those other apps more so what's next for these other platforms?

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Yeah there are a couple things I would say so first

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we were part of a multi-state investigation into social media use

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generally it was not specific to Meta platforms and so

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companies are well aware that we're not just looking at Meta platforms right

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now we're looking at the landscape of social media companies.

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Companies that step in and try to take advantage of the fact that

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Meta is putting in place these requirements that they've been obligated to

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should be clear then that they are on notice that

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they are going to be held accountable for the conduct they're engaging in.

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This is a massive settlement amount with Meta here

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but the types of settlement amounts the types of recoveries we could be

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seeking from others if they engage in conduct that tries to take advantage

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of this situation could be very well very significant.

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So we are committed to seeing not just change on one platform not just on

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Instagram we're not just on Meta platforms but throughout the social

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media industry.

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Then Hanson?

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Hi thank you very much. What kind of damage were you seeing with

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children at a local state level here in Wisconsin that made you

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want to join this effort? Well first I think anybody who has kids

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knows the draw and the allure of these social media platforms

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and you know as kids get into their teenage years and are of the age where

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they're able to use these platforms there have been lots of harms that have

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been documented but one certainly concerning aspect is the

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addictive nature of these platforms and the fact that

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kids can use lots and lots of time on them. Another concern is the mental

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health harms that occur from some of these comparison

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features. Kids for example seeing beauty filters online and

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trying to compare themselves to somebody else's filtered image or

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seeing the the light counts that somebody else

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racks up on Instagram and somehow feeling like that's a judgment of

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their social status and then on top of that there are conversations about

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concerning topics which is why some of the content restrictions here are so

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important things like bullying that's happening or

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conversations about self-harm or eating disorders.

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So there are widespread harms that we've alleged are linked to these social

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media platforms and to the addiction of it. We've alleged that these

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companies that met us specifically knew about these harms

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and yet continued to do what it was doing. So this kind of massive

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settlement amount as well as these kind of

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game-changing changes in how these platforms do their business with respect

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to kids who are online is going to fundamentally change the way that

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that social media, the role that social media plays in kids lives.

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Again this is not the complete industry but it's a critical part of it.

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Jesse.

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Thank you. Could you just expand a little bit more on the allocation of these funds

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once the state has them and is this a situation where DOJ has full

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discretion over what to do with them or do you need to work with the

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legislature on this? Yeah, no. DOJ will be

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assessing the precise allocation of these funds. The vast majority

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will be going toward addressing mental health harms for kids

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in Wisconsin. The settlement agreement provides for

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50% of the overall settlement minimum going towards

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addressing the types of harms that have caused and there are a number of different

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examples of the types of programs that that may benefit from these settlement

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funds that includes things like grants to school districts,

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youth mental health programming, after school programming.

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So what we're going to be doing in the weeks ahead is assessing how we can

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use these funds most effectively to help kids.

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Of course it's also important that we continue to be able to do this work and

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that that work is funded so that we are continuing to hold the industry

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accountable for the kind of conduct that we've alleged is

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fine.

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This is the last call for questions. If anyone has a question please raise your

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hand and we will call on you.

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Scott?

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Yeah, thanks. I just wanted to re-ask Jesse's question. So DOJ has

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full discretion on how this money is spent.

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Well we're subject to the conditions of the settlement agreement. So the

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settlement agreement lays out how the funds can be utilized.

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As a practical matter the majority of the funds here from the settlement

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will be going towards various programs that support

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youth mental health and things along the lines that I talked about.

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We will be in contact with stakeholders and others

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about how we can use those funds most effectively to ensure that they're

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serving the purpose that they're designed to which is

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remediating the harm and helping with the kids mental health coming forward.

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Great that concludes today's press conference. Thank you all for joining.

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If you have any further questions don't hesitate to reach out to the DOJ

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communications office. We are at dojcommunications.doj.state.wi.us.

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Thank you. Thanks everyone.