Source: TechCrunch
Buried within Meta's $18 billion fine is a carve-out permitting the company to collect and use children's data for AI training—specifically to build age-detection systems. This allows Meta to repurpose what would otherwise violate COPPA, using compliance infrastructure (age verification models) as justification for data harvesting. The settlement reveals how regulatory agreements can create legal pathways around the harms they're meant to address. State attorneys general accepted data-use concessions in exchange for headline settlement numbers rather than demanding genuine behavioral restrictions.