WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.240 mental health. As a result of this settlement, Wisconsin is set to receive 00:04.240 --> 00:11.060 $219 million and we could receive up to $313 million if certain industry 00:11.060 --> 00:17.320 conditions are met. Now the next step is determining where the funding is going 00:17.320 --> 00:21.320 to be directed. What I'm going to be doing is everything I can to put these 00:21.320 --> 00:27.320 funds for keeping kids safe in Wisconsin. Some potential examples of how these 00:27.360 --> 00:31.760 funds could be used include crisis intervention services, after school 00:31.760 --> 00:38.280 programming, digital wellness, youth mental health programming, supporting the 00:38.280 --> 00:44.640 hiring of digital literacy counselors, and training for medical providers on 00:44.640 --> 00:48.720 interactive media use and body dysmorphia. And then last they could also 00:48.720 --> 00:54.120 go to grants for school district to support mental health. These numbers make 00:54.120 --> 00:59.640 this the largest big tech settlement in the history of the country. It's also 00:59.640 --> 01:04.360 the largest state consumer protection settlement ever aside from those in 01:04.360 --> 01:07.800 involving big tobacco in a case where there's a single company that's 01:07.800 --> 01:12.040 settling. From my perspective though, more important than the dollars we're 01:12.040 --> 01:16.320 talking about are the sweeping new safety measures for kids that meta is 01:16.320 --> 01:20.240 going to be required to implement as a direct result of this settlement 01:20.240 --> 01:23.880 agreement. These changes are not only going to help reduce farms for kids 01:23.920 --> 01:28.640 mental health online, but I hope they can set a new standard for the entire 01:28.640 --> 01:33.720 industry so that kids who are using social media can stay safe and remain 01:33.720 --> 01:38.640 healthy as they're online. We want to see this agreement prompt other companies 01:38.640 --> 01:42.520 to make similar changes. Now the changes that meta is going to be required to 01:42.520 --> 01:46.360 implement are groundbreaking and they go beyond anything previously ordered by 01:46.360 --> 01:51.680 a court. As Attorney General Public Safety is my top priority and keeping 01:51.680 --> 01:56.240 kids safe is of the utmost importance. The challenges that kids face today are 01:56.240 --> 02:00.120 fundamentally different than the safety challenges that I faced as a kid. When I 02:00.120 --> 02:04.280 was a kid, we would talk about people would talk about looking both ways before 02:04.280 --> 02:09.480 you crossed the street. Now kids spend a lot of their time online. They are in a 02:09.480 --> 02:14.520 digital world and making sure that we are taking actions to keep kids safe is 02:14.520 --> 02:18.400 fundamental to what we do at the OJ to protect public safety and is at the 02:18.440 --> 02:25.080 root of this agreement. So today it takes a concerted effort from kids but also 02:25.080 --> 02:29.880 their parents and their family members from schools and from communities to 02:29.880 --> 02:34.640 prioritize real-world interactions and learning. And it takes just as robust an 02:34.640 --> 02:39.760 effort to protect kids from the threats that they face online. Threats that range 02:39.760 --> 02:45.280 from exploitation to extortion to addiction and isolation as well as 02:45.280 --> 02:49.680 mental health harms from addiction to social media. The world is changing 02:49.680 --> 02:54.280 rapidly and it's part of Wisconsin DOJ's mission to meet this moment by 02:54.280 --> 02:58.160 combating the new threats that social media poses to our kids mental health 02:58.160 --> 03:03.200 and to take those challenges head-on. That's why I had a coalition of HEs from 03:03.200 --> 03:08.720 other states sued medical platforms in October 2023 following our multi-state 03:08.720 --> 03:13.720 investigation. In our lawsuit we alleged that the company knowingly designed and 03:13.720 --> 03:18.560 employed harmful features on Instagram and other social media platforms that 03:18.560 --> 03:24.200 purposely addict children and teens. We've also alleged that 03:24.200 --> 03:28.840 meta falsely assured the public that these features are safe and suitable for 03:28.840 --> 03:32.560 young users. Instead of taking steps to address those harms we alleged that 03:32.560 --> 03:36.800 meta concealed the extent of the psychological and health harms suffered 03:36.800 --> 03:41.480 by young users addicted to its platforms. Beyond this the company is alleged to 03:41.480 --> 03:46.240 have known that young users some under the age of 13 were active on the 03:46.240 --> 03:51.840 platforms and knowingly collected data from those users without parental consent. 03:51.840 --> 03:57.600 In addition to those allegations our suit alleged that meta targeted these 03:57.600 --> 04:03.080 young users and described that such a user base was quote valuable but untapped 04:03.080 --> 04:08.800 unquote. Well this settlement resolves those claims as well as other claims by 04:08.840 --> 04:13.240 other settling states and territories. So today as part of this settlement with 04:13.240 --> 04:17.040 Wisconsin and a coalition meta has agreed to implement significant new 04:17.040 --> 04:22.160 kids safety features on Instagram and Facebook. As I said before these are 04:22.160 --> 04:26.600 some transformative features that are in place. For those who are under 13 they 04:26.600 --> 04:30.520 are not supposed to be on these platforms and they're going to be stronger age 04:30.520 --> 04:34.880 verification measures in place. For those between the ages of 13 from ages of 04:34.880 --> 04:42.320 13 to 17. This agreement will create a combined two hour daily limit for both 04:42.320 --> 04:50.040 Facebook and Instagram in total. There will be mandatory pauses at 15 minutes 60 04:50.040 --> 04:54.600 minutes and 90 minutes. The goal of that is to help interrupt what my kids would 04:54.600 --> 04:59.800 refer to as doom scrolling online. There are also restrictions on nighttime 04:59.800 --> 05:05.000 access. Those will limit the hours when these platforms are available to kids. 05:05.000 --> 05:09.320 There are going to be limits on school time access as well. Specifically there's 05:09.320 --> 05:14.200 going to be an elimination of push notifications during school hours. As I 05:14.200 --> 05:17.760 mentioned there are going to be more robust age assurance measures and they're 05:17.760 --> 05:21.520 going to be safer age appropriate content controls in place. Including 05:21.520 --> 05:25.840 stronger safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders and 05:26.200 --> 05:30.720 content related to suicide and self harm. They're going to be stronger more 05:30.720 --> 05:35.920 friendly user friendly parental controls in place as well. So parents are going to 05:35.920 --> 05:40.720 be able more easily to play a larger role in limiting their kids use of these 05:40.720 --> 05:45.560 platforms. And there are going to be limits on social comparison features including 05:45.560 --> 05:52.200 certain beauty filter filters and visible light counts that have been linked to 05:52.200 --> 05:57.320 poor mental health outcomes in kids and teens. Now these are groundbreaking new 05:57.320 --> 06:01.240 changes that are geared toward making social media safer for kids and 06:01.240 --> 06:05.920 providing parents with stronger tools to be involved in their kids online lives. 06:05.920 --> 06:11.000 There's no doubt that that this settlement is historic but it's also my 06:11.000 --> 06:16.440 sincere hope that this is an inflection point where after these changes go into 06:16.440 --> 06:20.920 effect and after today's settlement agreement has now been announced other 06:20.960 --> 06:26.120 big tech firms and social media companies beyond meta will hear our message that 06:26.120 --> 06:29.960 we are committed to getting accountability from social media companies 06:29.960 --> 06:34.440 that engage in conduct that farms our kids and now is the time for them to 06:34.440 --> 06:39.160 make the kind of sweeping changes in the name of kids safety online. These 06:39.160 --> 06:44.080 changes will be implemented over a period of time. Most of the changes will go into 06:44.080 --> 06:49.920 effect within six months of the judgment and there will be some changes soon as 06:50.000 --> 06:55.600 two months from the entry of the judgment. This is a fundamental change in the way 06:55.600 --> 06:59.600 that kids are going to social media will play a role in kids lives at least with 06:59.600 --> 07:04.320 respect to Instagram and Facebook and we are committed to ensuring that we are 07:04.320 --> 07:09.160 doing what we can to keep our kids safe from these online arms. So with that I'll 07:09.160 --> 07:10.560 take any questions that folks may have. 07:12.400 --> 07:16.240 All right everyone a little bit of housekeeping so we're now going to take on 07:16.240 --> 07:21.520 topic questions for media members. If you have a question please raise your hand 07:21.520 --> 07:25.200 and we will call on you in the order in which you ask your question. Once we call 07:25.200 --> 07:29.120 on you we will promote you to panelists that you may speak this might take a 07:29.120 --> 07:33.520 second. As a reminder if you're on your phone you can press star nine to raise 07:33.520 --> 07:37.360 or lower your hand and star six to mute or unmute yourself once you're 07:37.360 --> 07:41.360 called on. We will begin momentarily. 07:41.360 --> 07:44.240 Mitchell Smith. 07:47.920 --> 07:52.480 Yeah yeah thank you very much for the for the time today. You had mentioned early on 07:52.480 --> 07:56.960 that Wisconsin is set to receive I think you I believe you said it was 219 million 07:56.960 --> 08:02.000 or up to 313 million instead of if certain industry conditions are met would you 08:02.000 --> 08:05.200 be possible to kind of expand on that a little bit and then if there'd be any 08:05.200 --> 08:07.120 sort of info on the timing for these funds. 08:07.840 --> 08:13.440 Yeah there are a couple aspects of the settlement that will be strengthened if 08:13.440 --> 08:19.120 there are other agreements reached or other conditions imposed on other 08:19.120 --> 08:24.480 social media companies. So first with respect to some of the limits that I 08:24.480 --> 08:31.520 talked about for the limits for example on nighttime hour usage as well as the 08:31.600 --> 08:38.880 time limits per day. If TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube are subject to similar 08:38.880 --> 08:44.480 limits then they will apply even stronger here. In terms of the 08:44.480 --> 08:50.800 settlement amounts if we receive resolutions of a certain amount from 08:50.800 --> 08:55.600 TikTok as well as YouTube then that would lead to the 08:55.600 --> 08:58.320 four amount being recovered as part of the settlement we can get to the 08:58.320 --> 09:03.120 precise numbers on what those those are required to be but there's a lot 09:03.120 --> 09:08.560 there's some nuance to it because if we as a state receiver proportion of the 09:08.560 --> 09:13.040 total amount that would trigger the the obligations that Meta has towards 09:13.040 --> 09:17.440 Wisconsin or if nationwide there's a certain amount that could also trigger 09:17.440 --> 09:20.240 the applications. 09:21.040 --> 09:26.720 All right next up is Vanessa. 09:28.080 --> 09:32.880 Hi thank you. Where does the suit stand in terms of the other apps you 09:32.880 --> 09:37.360 mentioned like a TikTok or Snapchat? If all these restrictions are just being 09:37.360 --> 09:40.960 put in place for Instagram and Facebook I could imagine that would drive kids 09:40.960 --> 09:46.560 just to use those other apps more so what's next for these other platforms? 09:46.560 --> 09:48.880 Yeah there are a couple things I would say so first 09:48.880 --> 09:52.960 we were part of a multi-state investigation into social media use 09:52.960 --> 09:58.160 generally it was not specific to Meta platforms and so 09:58.160 --> 10:04.080 companies are well aware that we're not just looking at Meta platforms right 10:04.080 --> 10:08.000 now we're looking at the landscape of social media companies. 10:08.000 --> 10:11.440 Companies that step in and try to take advantage of the fact that 10:11.440 --> 10:15.200 Meta is putting in place these requirements that they've been obligated to 10:15.200 --> 10:19.040 should be clear then that they are on notice that 10:19.040 --> 10:22.480 they are going to be held accountable for the conduct they're engaging in. 10:22.480 --> 10:26.880 This is a massive settlement amount with Meta here 10:26.880 --> 10:30.400 but the types of settlement amounts the types of recoveries we could be 10:30.400 --> 10:34.480 seeking from others if they engage in conduct that tries to take advantage 10:34.480 --> 10:38.720 of this situation could be very well very significant. 10:38.720 --> 10:43.600 So we are committed to seeing not just change on one platform not just on 10:43.600 --> 10:47.120 Instagram we're not just on Meta platforms but throughout the social 10:47.120 --> 10:49.360 media industry. 10:50.000 --> 10:52.880 Then Hanson? 10:54.880 --> 10:59.360 Hi thank you very much. What kind of damage were you seeing with 10:59.360 --> 11:03.040 children at a local state level here in Wisconsin that made you 11:03.040 --> 11:09.440 want to join this effort? Well first I think anybody who has kids 11:09.440 --> 11:14.160 knows the draw and the allure of these social media platforms 11:14.160 --> 11:17.760 and you know as kids get into their teenage years and are of the age where 11:17.760 --> 11:21.840 they're able to use these platforms there have been lots of harms that have 11:21.840 --> 11:26.000 been documented but one certainly concerning aspect is the 11:26.000 --> 11:29.360 addictive nature of these platforms and the fact that 11:29.360 --> 11:34.560 kids can use lots and lots of time on them. Another concern is the mental 11:34.560 --> 11:37.600 health harms that occur from some of these comparison 11:37.600 --> 11:41.520 features. Kids for example seeing beauty filters online and 11:41.520 --> 11:45.920 trying to compare themselves to somebody else's filtered image or 11:45.920 --> 11:48.640 seeing the the light counts that somebody else 11:48.640 --> 11:53.840 racks up on Instagram and somehow feeling like that's a judgment of 11:53.840 --> 11:58.640 their social status and then on top of that there are conversations about 11:58.640 --> 12:02.560 concerning topics which is why some of the content restrictions here are so 12:02.560 --> 12:05.440 important things like bullying that's happening or 12:05.440 --> 12:09.120 conversations about self-harm or eating disorders. 12:09.120 --> 12:13.760 So there are widespread harms that we've alleged are linked to these social 12:13.760 --> 12:17.280 media platforms and to the addiction of it. We've alleged that these 12:17.280 --> 12:21.360 companies that met us specifically knew about these harms 12:21.360 --> 12:25.600 and yet continued to do what it was doing. So this kind of massive 12:25.600 --> 12:28.560 settlement amount as well as these kind of 12:28.560 --> 12:33.760 game-changing changes in how these platforms do their business with respect 12:33.760 --> 12:37.440 to kids who are online is going to fundamentally change the way that 12:37.440 --> 12:40.720 that social media, the role that social media plays in kids lives. 12:40.720 --> 12:46.000 Again this is not the complete industry but it's a critical part of it. 12:47.200 --> 12:49.760 Jesse. 12:50.320 --> 12:55.360 Thank you. Could you just expand a little bit more on the allocation of these funds 12:55.360 --> 12:59.200 once the state has them and is this a situation where DOJ has full 12:59.200 --> 13:02.480 discretion over what to do with them or do you need to work with the 13:02.480 --> 13:06.080 legislature on this? Yeah, no. DOJ will be 13:06.080 --> 13:10.720 assessing the precise allocation of these funds. The vast majority 13:10.720 --> 13:14.880 will be going toward addressing mental health harms for kids 13:14.880 --> 13:19.280 in Wisconsin. The settlement agreement provides for 13:19.280 --> 13:23.440 50% of the overall settlement minimum going towards 13:23.440 --> 13:27.280 addressing the types of harms that have caused and there are a number of different 13:27.280 --> 13:31.920 examples of the types of programs that that may benefit from these settlement 13:31.920 --> 13:36.000 funds that includes things like grants to school districts, 13:36.000 --> 13:39.440 youth mental health programming, after school programming. 13:39.440 --> 13:44.160 So what we're going to be doing in the weeks ahead is assessing how we can 13:44.160 --> 13:48.160 use these funds most effectively to help kids. 13:48.160 --> 13:51.200 Of course it's also important that we continue to be able to do this work and 13:51.200 --> 13:55.440 that that work is funded so that we are continuing to hold the industry 13:55.440 --> 13:59.600 accountable for the kind of conduct that we've alleged is 13:59.920 --> 14:01.920 fine. 14:05.440 --> 14:09.920 This is the last call for questions. If anyone has a question please raise your 14:09.920 --> 14:13.600 hand and we will call on you. 14:14.560 --> 14:17.040 Scott? 14:18.880 --> 14:23.920 Yeah, thanks. I just wanted to re-ask Jesse's question. So DOJ has 14:23.920 --> 14:27.440 full discretion on how this money is spent. 14:27.440 --> 14:31.760 Well we're subject to the conditions of the settlement agreement. So the 14:31.760 --> 14:36.480 settlement agreement lays out how the funds can be utilized. 14:36.480 --> 14:41.040 As a practical matter the majority of the funds here from the settlement 14:41.040 --> 14:45.040 will be going towards various programs that support 14:45.040 --> 14:48.400 youth mental health and things along the lines that I talked about. 14:48.400 --> 14:51.920 We will be in contact with stakeholders and others 14:51.920 --> 14:56.320 about how we can use those funds most effectively to ensure that they're 14:56.480 --> 14:59.280 serving the purpose that they're designed to which is 14:59.280 --> 15:04.640 remediating the harm and helping with the kids mental health coming forward. 15:12.000 --> 15:15.600 Great that concludes today's press conference. Thank you all for joining. 15:15.600 --> 15:18.880 If you have any further questions don't hesitate to reach out to the DOJ 15:18.880 --> 15:24.800 communications office. We are at dojcommunications.doj.state.wi.us. 15:24.800 --> 15:28.160 Thank you. Thanks everyone.