$18 Billion to Protect Children Online: But What Price Will We Pay?

A landmark settlement in the United States could change the way some of the world's biggest social-media companies treat children. 

Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to a settlement potentially worth $18 billion, around £13 billion, following legal action over alleged harm to young people.

It sounds like a major victory for child safety. The Workers of England Union welcomes action that makes technology companies take greater responsibility for protecting children. But it also raises three important questions for families in England.

1. Is it good that this is happening?

Yes.

For too long, responsibility for keeping children safe online has fallen heavily upon parents, while enormously profitable technology companies design and control the platforms children use.

The National Crime Agency has warned of the scale of online child sexual abuse and exploitation. More than 92,000 referrals were received from online platforms concerning potential child sexual abuse and exploitation in 2025. Online-facilitated abuse now accounts for at least 42 per cent of recorded child sexual abuse offences in England and Wales.

Meta's US settlement includes additional protections for younger users. Whatever our wider concerns, forcing technology companies to take child safety seriously must be welcomed.

2. Should we wait and see what actually happens?

Yes, because an $18 billion settlement makes an impressive headline, but the real question is whether children become safer.

There is also an obvious concern for families here. Why should a child in America receive protections that a child in England does not?

The British Government has already indicated that it expects Meta to introduce equivalent protections here. That needs to happen.

But there is another issue. How will companies establish who is under 16 or 18?

That question takes us directly into an existing Workers of England Union campaign.

WEU has already warned that protecting children online must not become a backdoor route towards Digital ID or intrusive verification of the entire population. If every adult has to prove their identity simply to demonstrate that they are not a child, we risk solving one problem by creating another.

3. Could this fail without wider change?

Absolutely.

The Workers of England Union believes the starting point should be making the internet safer, rather than simply placing more restrictions upon the people using it.

Parents have responsibilities, but so do multinational technology companies whose platforms generate billions of pounds in revenue.

Age restrictions alone will not stop grooming, bullying, sextortion, addictive algorithms or harmful material. Children may find ways around restrictions, while intrusive age-verification systems could affect the privacy of millions of law-abiding adults.

This is why the issue connects directly with WEU's campaign against compulsory Digital ID. We should all be vigilant that the vital protection of children using the internet is not used by the British government to collect more data on our people

We should not have to choose between protecting our children and protecting our privacy.

Stephen Morris, General Secretary of the Workers of England Union, said:

“Children must be protected online and the technology companies making billions from these platforms must take responsibility for making them safe. The $18 billion Meta settlement shows what can happen when those companies are held to account.

But we must be very careful about what comes next in England. Protecting children should not become the excuse for requiring every adult to prove their identity before they can use the internet.

The answer cannot simply be more identification, more personal information being collected and eventually Digital ID through the backdoor.

The Workers of England Union believes we can protect children while protecting the privacy and freedoms of everyone else and the technology companies should be held accountable. Make the platforms safer, hold the companies responsible for giving parents better tools, but do not make ordinary people surrender their identity and personal data simply to go online.”

Technology companies should be required to design safer platforms, provide meaningful parental controls, prevent predatory contact with children and demonstrate that their systems work. The British Government must regulate where necessary, but any measures must be proportionate and should not create a system where everybody in England is required to continually prove who they are online.

The $18 billion Meta settlement may be an important turning point.

So we welcome it. We will wait to see whether it actually works.

But the Workers of England Union will continue to argue for both principles: our children deserve protection online, and the people of England deserve protection from unnecessary digital surveillance.

We should demand both.

References: (National Crime Agency: National Strategic Assessment 2026; National Crime Agency and National Police Chiefs' Council: Position on under-16s' access to the online environment; UK Government: New Rules to Protect Children Online, 2026; BBC News: Reporting on the Meta US settlement and international child-safety measures, August 2026; Workers of England Union: The Great Social Media Ban: Will It Protect Children?, June 2026; Workers of England Union: Trade Union Statement Opposing Digital ID)

Key Takeaways

• $18B Meta Settlement Impact: Meta's landmark US settlement forces technology giants to take legal responsibility for child online safety.
• Call for Equivalent UK Protections: The WEU argues children in England must receive the same platform safety protections as American users.
• Risk of Backdoor Digital ID: The Union warns against using online child protection as a pretext for compulsory adult age-verification and mass digital surveillance.
• Demand for Platform Safety by Design: Tech firms must fix unsafe algorithms and predatory hazards rather than forcing law-abiding citizens to surrender personal identity data.