Is Meta finally backing a federal kids safety bill, or is it all PR?

In the aftermath of Meta 's recent $17 billion settlement , the culmination of a litigious debate over its alleged role in social media addiction and youth mental health, all attention was on the platform's promises.

As part of the settlement, Meta said it would invest further in what many are now referring to as industry-leading app guardrails.

The company would also deliver a precedent-setting $12 billion payment to state attorneys general.

Another $5 billion will be added if Snap, TikTok, and YouTube agree to implement their own safeguards.

Many honed in the specific platform changes included in the agreement — including greater age assurance and stronger time limits — and the potential downstream effect Meta's changes could levy on its competitors.

But others, including a group of survivor parents, perked up at a different, less flashy promise.

SEE ALSO: 5 of the biggest changes coming to Instagram, Facebook "I think legislation would have been the best answer to this issue," an unnamed Meta official told reporters during a press call following the settlement.

The official went on, alluding to recent attempts to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA): "It would be better to have this done by a legislature, which can immediately bind all of our competitors to the same rules." The comment was a shock to folks working behind the scenes to advance tech regulation, including Maurine Molak, an advocate and co-founder of Parents for Safe Online Spaces (ParentsSOS).

The organization has been fighting for years to pass child safety legislation like KOSA despite Big Tech's roadblocks.

Molak was in the room during Meta's 2024 congressional hearin g , at which Zuckerberg apologized to a group of families, including Molak, whose children had died by suicide .

"I was livid," Molak told Mashable.

"For them to come out and act like KOSA was the answer to these issues after knowing the millions of dollars they spent lobbying against [it]? I was incensed." The Meta official implied that the time had passed for Congress to advance the bill during this session, which infuriated Molak in particular.

"Who makes Meta the overseer of Congress' calendar?" she asked.

Molak helped pass Texas' anti-cyberbullying legislation, David's Law, in 2017, in honor of her son.