Meta has agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion to resolve claims that it designed Facebook and Instagram in ways that harmed children and teens. These funds can be used for youth mental health programs, crisis services, after-school/summer programs, public education, provider training, outdoor activities, and grants to local schools and governments. The settlement requires significant changes to how young people experience these platforms. Meta has alsocalled on TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar safeguards. 

These developments, combined with other settlements involving opioids, mark an important opportunity to address addiction issues holistically, with foresight and planning, and to move forward with progress.

It is important these settlement monies are used to strengthen youth mental health systems and prevent further harm; we cannot risk exacerbating harm and suffering the same settlement spiral that is occurring in places like New Jersey regarding the opioid crisis.

The Kennedy Forum, building on its recommendations that led to successful momentum in youth mental health, recommends five principles for reinvesting settlement funds in youth mental health. 

1. Prioritize prevention and address conditions contributing to harm. States should invest upstream, rather than focusing only on treating mental health conditions after they emerge. Upstream prevention could include resilience, social connectedness, a sense of belonging, digital literacy and well-being, healthy school climates, and interventions addressing the digital environments affecting young people. This approach recognizes algorithmic childhood as an increasingly important environment for upstream prevention.
2. Strengthen the full continuum of youth mental health. Funding should support prevention, early identification, screening, treatment, crisis response, and recovery rather than concentrating resources at a single point in the system. A robust and multi-faceted crisis response system, with the requisite tools, processes, and training for first responders, is a key component of crisis de-escalation and suicide prevention. A continuum should address the immediate needs of young people in crisis while building durable systems that promote well-being for future generations.
3. Invest where young people live, learn, and connect. Schools and community settings should be major, but not exclusive, investment targets. School and community-based screenings coupled with clear pathways to coordinated services are imperative. Importantly, ensure youth mental health screenings reach high-risk populations, including youth involved with the justice system, foster care, or youth with disabilities.
4. Use settlement dollars to build sustainable infrastructure. Settlement dollars should seed, strengthen, or modernize systems. States should identify how investments can ultimately connect with Medicaid, commercial insurance, education funding, and other sustainable financing mechanisms. Long-term investments and codifiable policies should be designed from the outset with plans for sustainability, rather than episodic programs that disappear when the settlement funds run out.
5. Require accountability for results, not simply expenditure reports. States should establish measurable outcomes, transparent public reporting, rigorous evaluation, and implementation oversight from baseline. This should include tracking outcomes and utilization, producing actionable and time-bound recommendations, and establishing durable cross-agency governance to ensure accountability and sustained implementation.

These principles can guide states in translating settlement dollars into durable policy, sustainable financing, and tenable youth mental health systems.

Importantly, we must continue to ask along the way: Does this investment prevent harm? Because as we know, social media will not be the last test. Online gambling and prediction markets are proliferating faster than the protections surrounding them. As Amy L. Kennedy recently wrote in The Next Youth Mental Health Crisis Is Online Gambling, we cannot wait until the damage is undeniable before acting. 

That is why The Kennedy Forum is developing recommendations to address these rapidly expanding threats, protect young people now, and examine how states can translate these principles into sustainable investments in school and community mental health. 

Interested in Learning More? 

Explore our recommendations. The Kennedy Forum has long recognized the power of social media, and the critical importance of building systems for change, addressing emerging risks, and creating tangible policy recommendations to meet new challenges. Read The Kennedy Forum’s youth mental health research and policy resources, or see the report from the National Governors Association that Co-Founder Amy L. Kennedy helped shape through her leadership and collaboration with governors and national partners.