While the lawsuit has taken years to reach this point, advocates say the apolitical nature of the court process often leads to quicker results than waiting for lawmakers to act. “We can’t ignore the role that Big Tech’s millions of dollars in lobbying and campaign contributions have played in stalling progress on federal legislation like KOSA,” Mothers Against Media Addiction’s Scelfo said.

“If Congress had passed KOSA years ago, safety-by-design protections would already be law, and states wouldn’t need litigation to mandate design changes one company at a time,” said Mick Tobin, co-founder and advocacy director of the Young People’s Alliance.

Amping the pressure on Washington

The terms of the agreement will be in force for only 10 years and, for now, would apply solely to Meta. The settlement also does not establish a legal mandate known as duty of care — requiring platforms to curb reasonably foreseeable harm to minors — which online safety groups have been pushing to include in legislation.

Haley Hinkle, policy counsel for child tech safety group Fairplay, said Congress still needs to establish a “future-proof standard,” though she sees the fact that Meta accepted this settlement as a promising sign for legislative efforts.

“Meta agreeing to these design changes means that they’re admitting these types of protections are fully lawful, and can be required of them via a legal system,” she told POLITICO. “We are certainly noting that as we continue to push for legislation.”

Lawmakers are also using momentum from the settlement to argue that Capitol Hill still has a role to play when it comes to protecting kids online.

“This settlement once again demands that Congress pass the Kids Online Safety Act into law before the end of the year,” Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the bill’s two lead Senate sponsors, said in a statement.

Eliza Gkritsi and Mizy Clifton contributed to this report.