Washington state is set to receive hundreds of millions of dollars stemming from a landmark $17.1 billion multistate settlement with Meta Platforms Inc. over claims the company’s products endangered children with addictive social media features.

Spokane-based LaunchNW is working to ensure those funds are dedicated to mitigating the harms that initiated the lawsuit rather than plugging deficits in the state's budget, says LaunchNW Executive Director Ben Small. 

Under the terms of the settlement, Washington will receive $237 million guaranteed, and up to $339 million over the next 10 years. The additional funding is contingent on states working with other social media companies to reach similar agreements, according to a news release from Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown's office.

LaunchNW is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to youth empowerment working out of the Innovia Foundation offices, at 818 W. Riverside. The organization has been working behind the scenes to support legislation for the creation of a centralized fund for future investments in positive youth development programming. The proposed programming includes youth mental health services and interventions, after-school and summer programming, structured activities, youth development programs, and the creation of “third spaces,” where young people can interact offline, Small says.

Senate Bill 5992, known as the Youth Development Fund, did not pass during the 2026 legislative session. Still, Small says LaunchNW, in partnership with School’s Out Washington and other youth development organizations, will continue to advocate for it.

A portion of the settlement funds directed to the Attorney General's Office will pay attorney costs, fund continued enforcement of consumer protection laws, and support youth mental health programs, according to the release. Because legislative efforts to establish a dedicated Youth Development Fund didn't pass in the 2026 session, advocates are urging lawmakers to prevent the remaining funds from being absorbed into the state's general budget. At the moment, there is no clear indication how much, or if any of those settlement funds will reach Spokane. 

“The thing we want to make very clear is that this (settlement) should not go to general fund,” Small says. “It should not be used to backfill cuts to the state budget. Make sure that you’re actually using this money to ameliorate the things that have caused this.”

The Meta settlement is the largest state consumer protection settlement in history outside of the Big Tobacco settlements in the 1990s, according to the release. The agreement resolves claims that Meta designed Facebook and Instagram with addictive features, knowingly exposed young adults to serious mental harms, illegally collected preteen user data without parental permission, and intentionally misled the public about the safety of its platforms.

As part of the settlement, Meta is required to implement a sweeping set of safety features designed to protect children from social media overuse. Some of those features include a combined two-hour daily time limit; nighttime blocks restricting access to Facebook and Instagram from midnight to 6 a.m. for children; and, during the academic school year, eliminating push notifications on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Even with the settlement and reformed safety features, it’s important to invest in the development of healthy activities, Small notes.

“If we’re going to replace screen time and the use of social media, it has to be done with kids in a productive way,” he says. “Kids need third spaces. They need to be able to gather in real life and create real-life connections.”

Engage In Real Life is one such initiative that LaunchNW has highlighted in national webinars as a possible model for that investment. Small has invited Attorney General Brown to Spokane to witness the program and how it's impacting youth here. 

Launched in 2024, EngageIRL is billed as the antidote to social disengagement and the mental health crisis impacting Spokane’s youth and families. The initiative is a collaboration between LaunchNW and Spokane Public Schools that aims to mobilize the entire community to increase youth engagement in out-of-school activities.

In the 2025-2026 school year, 65% of Spokane Public Schools students participated in at least one activity and 61.7% of elementary students who were involved in two or more activities showed math proficiency, compared to 43.6% of their non-involved peers, according to LaunchNW’s annual report.

As previously reported by the Journal, EngageIRL was established in response to data pointing to concerning mental health challenges facing young people on their journey to post-high school and career attainment. 

From 2010 to 2021, there was a sharp rise in self-harm and suicide attempts in children 10 to 17 years of age. 

The most recently available Spokane County data shows 435 suicides and suicide attempts in 2024, down from 489 in 2023 and 587 in 2022. Those figures follow a steep rise documented in the years leading up to EngageIRL's creation. In 2021, the county reported 550 suicides and suicide attempts among children ages 10 to 17, up from 389 in 2020, 303 in 2019, 264 in 2018, and 317 in 2017. In 2010, there were 54 suicides and suicide attempts in Spokane County. 

Small notes that the long-term rise of self harm and suicide attempts began well before the pandemic and therefore can't be attributed exclusively to pandemic-era isolation. He points to Jonathan Haidt’s book, "The Anxious Generation," which argues that the sharp rise in adolescent mental health issues is directly correlated to a shift from a play-based childhood to a phone-based childhood. 

“We’re seeing lots of improvement in attendance and those types of things,” Small says. “To get measurable impact on our suicide rates and those things, it's going to be another couple of years before we see that.”