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Guest Columnist Idaho Senator Brian Lenney: Meta Just Paid $18 Billion for a Standing Ovation

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August 27, 2026

Meta Just Paid $18 Billion for a Standing Ovation
The settlement is real. So is the fact that Meta is already using it to sell you the App Store Accountability Act.

By: Idaho Senator Brian Lenney

On Wednesday, Meta agreed to pay roughly $18 billion to settle claims from 29 states that Facebook and Instagram were built to hook children and hold them there. Fifty-two attorneys general signed on. The deal landed one day into the testimony of Instagram head Adam Mosseri (which California’s attorney general called telling).

Meta admitted no wrongdoing.

Within hours, people who spent the last two years calling Meta the most predatory corporation in America were posting victory laps. Same accounts, same week. Monday it’s a company that sexualizes your daughter for ad revenue. Wednesday it’s a “partner in child safety.”

And most of those same people are still out there stumping for the App Store Accountability Act, which happens to be the policy Meta has spent more money chasing than any other.

Bottom line: you’re being played.

Meta didn’t end up in that Oakland courtroom over one bad quarter.

Court filings unsealed last November allege the company knew millions of adult strangers were contacting minors on its platforms, knew its products made teen mental health worse, and knew that material involving eating disorders, suicide, and child sexual abuse was detected constantly and removed rarely. According to that same brief, none of it was disclosed to the public or to Congress.

A few months before that, Reuters obtained an internal Meta policy document, which the company confirmed was authentic, showing that Meta’s own written rules permitted its AI chatbots to engage a child in romantic or sensual conversation. Legal approved it. Policy approved it. The chief ethicist approved it. The language came out after a reporter started asking questions, not before.

A New Mexico jury hit the company for close to $1 billion earlier this year in a separate child exploitation case, and Meta also lost another suit brought by a single teenager. When this trial opened in August, California’s deputy attorney general summed up the business model in four verbs: hook, hold, harvest, hide.

Through every bit of it, Meta denied, delayed, and paid other people to make its arguments in public.

Which brings us to Wednesday.

Here’s what Meta actually agreed to

  1. Teen accounts get a two-hour default daily limit and a nudge every 15 minutes to “encourage intentional use.”
  2. Accounts Meta identifies as belonging to minors get locked out overnight between midnight and 6 a.m., with notifications muted from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during school.
  3. Like counts disappear from teen posts by default, extreme makeup filters are blocked, autoplay can be switched off, and a teen can pick a feed that isn’t ranked by the algorithm.
  4. An independent auditor checks the work, and Meta is bound to it for ten years.

That’s the platform being held responsible (which makes sense).

But then there’s the rest of it.

Meta pays 70% of the settlement fund to the states in annual installments over the decade. The other 30% gets paid only if YouTube and TikTok also agree to pay the states and make similar changes to their own apps.

Which is why Meta is now running full-page newspaper ads urging its two biggest competitors to adopt the design rules it just agreed to (the ads leave out the part where a lawsuit made Meta do it).

So the punishment doubles as a marketing campaign, an industry standard Meta gets to claim it authored, and a coupon redeemable if the competition folds.

Set that against more than $200 billion in 2025 revenue, spread it across ten years, subtract the contingent third, and honestly it’s hard to know whether to call the structuring impressive or grotesque.

Read the announcement again

In the same statement where Meta said it was “investing in even stronger technology” to catch teens lying about their age, the company called on app stores to help with “age verification.”

Same day. Same press release. Meta agreed to write the largest child safety settlement check in the industry’s history and used the podium to argue that somebody else should be running the age checks (i.e. the device manufacturers).

That wasn’t an accident. Meta’s been running this play for years, and the App Store Accountability Act is where it pays off.

The bill is the ask…

S.1586 and its House companion (not to mention all the state-level bills where they’ve tried this) do four things: verify age at the app store account level, require parental approval for every download and in-app purchase, make developers assign and justify age ratings, and turn enforcement over to the FTC and the state attorneys general.

But none of that touches what Instagram serves a 14-year-old at 11 p.m.

It doesn’t reach the recommendation engine, or the eating disorder content the plaintiffs say Meta detected and left up. The bill governs the moment of download and then stops, which is roughly where Meta’s product begins.

What it does do is move the verification cost, the data liability, and the lawsuits onto device manufacturers, while handing Meta a defense it can use in every case that follows where they say something like: “Mom approved the download, so whatever the algorithm served Billy afterward is a family matter.”

If Meta is the arsonist, this bill inspects the matches.

And Meta’s fingerprints are all over it…

Bloomberg reported in July 2025 that Meta was helping fund the Digital Childhood Alliance, the coalition running the state-by-state campaign for app store age verification. That’s the same coalition behind the 88% parental support figure that shows up in the bill’s own rollout materials. When a member of Congress reads that number into the record, he’s citing research commissioned by a group underwritten by the one company his bill leaves alone.

Meanwhile Meta spent $26.29 million on federal lobbying in 2025 (a company record) and nearly $6 million in the second quarter of 2026, more than any other tech company in the country.

Nobody spends that kind of money to get regulated. You spend it to choose who gets regulated instead.

So when someone posts the whistleblower headlines on Tuesday, applauds the settlement on Wednesday, and stumps for the App Store Accountability Act on Thursday, principle isn’t the thread running through those three days. Meta got what it wanted on all of them, and Thursday didn’t cost a dime.

“Kids cannot consent,” Congressman John James said when he introduced the House version. He’s right about that.

So why does his bill let the company whose own guidelines permitted romantic roleplay with minors walk away with paperwork filed by somebody else?

The part of the settlement nobody is reading

Every protection in that deal rests on three words: accounts identified as minors.

Identified how?

Meta now has to determine which of its users are children, sort them into age brackets, and enforce the restrictions it negotiated with 52 state officials, every day, for ten years. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said in open court that compliance here remained “complicated,” which is judicial-speak for nobody has worked out how this is supposed to function.

Because age assurance mostly doesn’t work.

The available options are behavioral profiling that guesses a user’s age from activity and misfires in both directions, a government ID upload, or a face scan. Alexis Ingber (a Syracuse professor who studies this) said the settlement’s design changes look fine on paper and depend completely on age verification technology that isn’t effective yet.

Translation: the weakest piece of the system is carrying all the weight.

Now stack the App Store Accountability Act on top, pushing that same verification down into the operating system where any app can query it. Every adult in the country holding up a driver’s license to prove they aren’t 15. Australia shipped the operating system version in December, sold as “protecting children” and delivered as biometric checks on the entire adult population. Their prime minister predicted it would “reverberate around the world.”

He’s probably right, and that’s the problem.

Where that leaves parents

Look at where you personally end up in this arrangement. A corporation decides how old your child is. A corporation watches what your child does. An agreement between that corporation and 52 state officials sets the range of choices your family is permitted to make, and you pick from the menu.

We’re not asking the government to raise our kids. We’re asking it to put the burden on the party that built the harm, and to stop constructing an identity checkpoint for 340 million people on the way there.

The pitch never changes…

Either children stay unprotected, or everyone submits to more surveillance. Pick one.

We reject this false dichotomy.

Children deserve protection from addictive design and corporate exploitation, and they deserve privacy. Parents deserve real tools and genuine authority, not a system where Big Tech determines their kids’ ages, monitors their activity, and permits families to choose from a government-approved list.

Holding Meta accountable is necessary. Building a new surveillance infrastructure is not. Two different projects, and Meta has spent about $26 million a year making sure you can’t tell them apart.

They didn’t lose on Wednesday. They bought ten years, a press cycle, a weapon to use on their competitors, and applause from people who should know better.

Don’t hand them the bill too.

Letter Writer Elijah Buchanan–Words Over Swords: Resolving Flock Peacefully

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Observer Staff
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August 18, 2026

Flock Safety cameras are an increasingly hot topic, as privacy concerns grow and public outcry rises. Citizens are worried that these automatic license plate readers (ALPR) threaten their civil liberties by conducting warrantless surveillance and nationally sharing footage. Police cite effective, fair, and efficient crime resolution as a motive to keep the cameras operating.

Vandalism of cameras has occurred throughout town, as dissenters go vigilante. Drive through Pocatello with an eye open for it, and you will see cut wires dangling from perhaps a quarter of the Flock cameras on our streets. Some have been knocked over and smashed. Each instance costs the Pocatello Police Department hundreds to thousands of dollars in repairs.

Privacy advocates—such as myself—ought to condemn these vigilante acts. Words, not swords, are the best defense of civil liberties.

On August 17, a friend and I put up signs near some of the Flock cameras in town, with satirical phrases such as “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” and “STATE FUNDED DYSTOPIA”. The intent was to raise awareness through protected free speech, without violating the city’s property rights.

Two officers stopped us, corrected us on the placement of one of the signs, and had a wonderfully respectful conversation with us about the cameras. They let us explain our concerns about data sharing with the FBI, potential for abuse, and 4th amendment violations. We listened carefully as they related how Pocatello conducts audits on how officers use license plate data, and that the Flock cameras helped them recently save a 14 year old girl who’d run away with a 25 year old stalker. All of us left with a greater appreciation for the other’s viewpoint.

To paraphrase the Declaration of Independence: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary [to protest surveillance cameras], a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the [protestation].” The Founders chose words first, swords second.

So let us use the system our Founding Fathers established and appeal to the City Council for change. A preliminary discussion on the Flock cameras already occurred on August 13 where the Police Department was thoroughly transparent and highly respectful. Let Pocatello’s freedom fighters do the same.

-Elijah Buchanan, Chubbuck

Guest Columnist Brian Almon: Four States Where Democrats Are Running Away from Their Own Brand

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(Image Credit: Gem State Chronicle)

August 24, 2026 (Cover Image Credit: Gem State Chronicle)

Four States Where Democrats Are Running Away from Their Own Brand

By: Brian Almon

When Democrat David Roth suspended his U.S. Senate campaign in Idaho on July 28, he did not mention the man his exit was intended to benefit. Todd Achilles, a former Democratic state representative, is now running as an independent against Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho). When he called it a two-person race, he didn’t mention Roth either.

Neither man wanted to draw attention to what had just happened.

That silence was notable, because this wasn’t an isolated incident. It’s the third time this cycle a Democratic Senate nominee has stepped aside to let a supposedly independent candidate — or at least someone without an official “D” next to his name — take the field alone against a Republican incumbent.

Individually, each case looks like a local story about a longshot candidate fizzling out. Together, though they look like a nationwide Democratic strategy — something the party would certainly never admit to, and one that says more about the state of the Democratic brand than its leaders likely want to discuss.

In Nebraska, Cindy Burbank won the Democratic Senate primary in May after openly promising she would drop out if she saw no path to victory. She kept that promise on July 17, exiting the race just as independent Dan Osborn qualified for the ballot by petition. This set up a one-on-one race against Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.). The secretary of state had already tried to remove Burbank from the ballot for not being a “good-faith candidate.” She sued her way back on, then dropped out to help Osborn, exactly as expected.

In South Dakota, Democrat Julian Beaudion dropped out in early August after months of insisting he’d never quit the race. A former state trooper, Beaudion looked like an ideal Democratic candidate on paper. But the challenge to Sen. Mike Rounds (R-N.D.) will now fall to independent Brian Bengs, a former Democrat who was trounced by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) in 2022.

In Idaho, the Ada County Democratic Central Committee — covering Boise, the state’s Democratic stronghold — sent Roth a public ultimatum in early July: Raise real money and produce a new plan, or the party would consider endorsing Achilles instead. Roth had raised just over $8,000 to Achilles’ $700,000 and Risch’s $3.5 million. Roth called the demand “ridiculous” and vowed to stay in, but three weeks later, he dropped out without explanation.

The same conversation is happening in Montana. Democratic nominee Alani Bankhead (D) has so far refused pressure to withdraw in favor of independent Seth Bodnar, even after the state party chair was found to have quietly solicited legal advice on handling a potential vacancy.

Four states, four Republican-held Senate seats, four Democratic parties pulling or considering the same maneuver of vacating their own ballot line so that a technically unaffiliated candidate can run without the baggage of the Democratic label.

None of this is illegal, and it’s not new — Angus King and Bernie Sanders have caucused with Senate Democrats for years without anyone calling it a scandal. What’s new is the intentionality. National Democrats aren’t just tolerating friendly independents anymore; in at least two of these races, state party infrastructure actively worked to clear the field for them.

It makes a certain amount of sense. In states like these, “Democrat” is usually a losing brand in statewide races, regardless of a candidate’s actual positions. An independent can absorb anti-incumbent energy and deep-red dissatisfaction with national Republicans in ways a Democratic nominee simply cannot, no matter how moderate that nominee might be.

Timing matters, too. These withdrawals are landing just as centrist Democrats panic over the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America. The New York Times recently reported that Third Way and other centrist organizations are preparing for what one leader called the “next war” — not against Republicans, but against the party’s own socialist wing, newly emboldened by Senate primary victories by Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed (D) and Florida’s Angie Nixon (D).

Democrats are purging their brand from red-state ballots and bracing for a civil war over that same brand everywhere else. When a party isn’t sure what it stands for, it is easier just not to say anything.

Idaho Democrats had made a habit of swapping candidates on their own ballot line, but the legislature closed that loophole in 2025, declaring that the winner of the primary must be the candidate in November, barring death or disqualification. Simply withdrawing in favor of an independent does not violate that law, but it is still a betrayal of the party’s own voters.

How voters respond to this nationwide strategy remains to be seen. The independents in these four races still trail their Republican opponents in the polls and in fundraising. But the strategy tells on itself. A party confident in its own name doesn’t need to find ways not to use it. Is that shrewd coalition building? Or a quiet admission of brand failure? It depends on which Democrat you ask.

Brian Almon is chairman of Idaho’s District 14 Republican Party, a trustee of the Eagle Public Library Board, and editor of the Gem State Chronicle.

Editor’s note:  This article originally appeared in The Hill.

HHS Releases Study Finding Those Who Associate with Left-Wing Authoritarian Beliefs, Radical Gender Ideology Are More Apt to Justify Political Violence

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Observer Staff
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(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Press Release, August 26, 2026)

Washington, D.C.–The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [on Tuesday] released a commissioned study that found individuals who believed in radical gender ideology were more likely to hold left-wing authoritarian beliefs and believe political violence is justified. The same study found individuals who held those held left-wing authoritarian views were more likely to justify political violence as well than non-left-wing participants.

The preregistered survey of 1,208 U.S. adults found that stronger endorsement of so-called “gender-affirming” clinical positions was substantially associated with higher levels of left-wing authoritarianism, including after accounting for political identity and age. Both measures were also associated with greater justification of political violence across six scenarios.

“This study raises important questions about what happens when ideology is given the authority of medicine,” said Admiral Brian Christine. “The association between sex-rejecting clinical beliefs, authoritarian attitudes, and the justification of political violence warrant serious scientific scrutiny. HHS will continue to pursue rigorous research that examines these relationships and gives the American people the evidence they deserve.”

To conduct the HHS-commissioned study, researchers from Rutgers University, the Manhattan Institute, and the Network Contagion Research Institute developed a Clinical Gender Affirmation Scale (CGAS) based on positions derived from guidance issued by the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and American Academy of Pediatrics.

The scale measured endorsement of five positions related to “transgender identity,” names and pronouns, and parental support.

According to the study, people who scored higher on left-wing authoritarianism were substantially more likely to consider political violence justified. That relationship remained after researchers accounted for how politically left-wing respondents identified.

The study also found that people who more strongly endorsed the sex-rejecting positions measured by the CGAS were more likely to justify political violence, even after accounting for political identity. That association was generally weaker than the relationship between left-wing authoritarianism and justification of political violence.

The authors propose that sex-rejecting beliefs may function as an ideological framework through which left-wing authoritarian tendencies become focused on specific perceived threats, outgroups, and forms of institutional action. They further propose that clinical and professional institutions may lend authority to a framework that identifies victims, sources of harm and responses to that harm, potentially providing people already disposed toward authoritarianism with moral justification for coercive or punitive action.

This study does not determine whether belief in radical gender ideology contributes to authoritarian attitudes or vice versa, nor whether an outside factor may contribute to both predispositions. The authors call for experimental research to test the proposed relationship.

The study also did not measure whether respondents committed or intended to commit political violence. It measured how justified respondents considered six hypothetical or described acts of political violence. The findings therefore establish associations with the justification of political violence, not violent behavior.

The full study, Where the Clinic Meets the Movement: Does Gender Ideology Arm Left-Wing Authoritarian Psychology? is available here.

2026 Fall Chinook Season Opener: What Anglers Need to Know

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Observer Staff
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(Idaho Fish and Game Press Release, August 17, 2026)

Idaho’s 2026 fall Chinook Salmon season open[ed] Tuesday, Aug. 18, and anglers heading to the Clearwater, Snake and Salmon rivers should be aware of an important change to the daily bag and possession limits for this year’s fishery.

2026 Fall Chinook Season

Season dates: Aug. 18 through Nov. 1, 2026

Fishing days: Seven days per week

Daily limit: Three adult fall Chinook per day, only one of which may be adipose-intact (unclipped). There is no daily limit on jack fall Chinook.

Possession limit: Nine adult fall Chinook, only three of which may be adipose-intact (unclipped).

Season limit: There is no season limit for fall Chinook Salmon.

Anglers should review the current fall Chinook regulations for specific fishing boundaries and other rules before heading to the water. Fall Chinook Season & Limits

Note: North Fork Clearwater opens September 1. 

LGR FCHN2026

2026 Season Forecast

Anglers can expect the 2026 fall Chinook return to be below recent averages.

Approximately 26,000 adult fall Chinook are currently projected to return to Lower Granite Dam, including about 20,885 hatchery-origin and 5,370 natural-origin adults.

The hatchery component of the run should provide meaningful harvest opportunity this fall. However, the forecasted return of natural origin fall Chinook is lower than what Idaho has experienced in recent years and will be an important consideration as Idaho Fish and Game monitors the fishery.

Why does the number of wild fish matter to anglers?

Idaho’s fall Chinook fishery is primarily limited by allowable impacts to natural-origin fish. Simply put, the fewer natural-origin fish that return, the fewer natural-origin fish anglers can harvest before allowable harvest limits are reached.

That is the reason for this year’s change allowing only one unclipped adult in the daily bag limit. The regulation is intended to reduce harvest of natural-origin adults while directing more harvest toward adipose-clipped hatchery fish. This should help provide fishing opportunities while protecting the smaller natural-origin return.

Conversion to Lower Granite will be important

The preseason forecast at Lower Granite Dam assumes a relatively normal survival rate of 70% as fish migrate through the Columbia and lower Snake rivers. This rate is referred to as the “Conversion” rate from Bonneville Dam to Lower Granite Dam.

Last year demonstrated how quickly that outlook can change when conversion rates dropped under 60%. If conversion rates during 2026 are similar to the poorer rates observed last year, the return to Lower Granite could fall short of the run projection. If conversion is near average, the return should be much closer to the preseason forecast.

For that reason, anglers shouldn’t put too much emphasis on early August dam counts. The next several weeks will provide much better information about the actual strength of Idaho’s return.

FCHN time

What should anglers expect for the Opener?

Fall Chinook typically arrive in Idaho in increasing numbers during the latter half of August, with fishing improving as more fish enter the Snake and Clearwater rivers, typically making early September the ideal time to fish. That said, Salmon fishing has been closed on the lower rivers in Idaho for a while and Fall Chinook often begin stacking up in Idaho before the August 18th opener. Since August 10th, about 1,000 adult Fall Chinook have passed Lower Granite. This is comparable to past seasons, so those who always chase the opening bite should expect similar results.

IDFG will continue monitoring the run

Idaho Fish and Game biologists will closely monitor dam passage, PIT-tag information, harvest and angler effort throughout the fall season. This data will provide a clearer picture of the run as additional fish enter the Columbia and Snake river systems.

The next two to four weeks will be particularly informative. As the run develops, managers will have a much better understanding of whether the return is tracking near the preseason forecast and whether fish are successfully converting upstream to Lower Granite Dam.

confluence

Fishing Boundary Waters

For anglers fishing boundary waters, an important thing to remember is that you may exercise the privileges of only one state’s license at a time.

For example, if you are fishing with two rods under an Idaho two-pole permit while in boundary waters, you are fishing under Idaho privileges and must follow Idaho’s associated regulations, including tagging requirements.

Likewise, possessing licenses from both states does not allow an angler to combine the possession limits from each state while fishing boundary waters. Anglers are entitled to the limit allowed under the license they are using.

Anglers planning to move between boundary waters and Washington-only waters should pay particular attention to Washington’s regulations.

Washington regulations state:

“Before utilizing a Washington fishing license or fishing Washington only waters, any fish retained while using another state’s license must be returned to shore before continuing to angle.”

In practical terms, an angler should not harvest a fall Chinook in boundary waters using an Idaho permit and then continue fishing in Washington-only waters with that fish still in the boat.

Anglers who plan to fish both boundary waters and Washington-only waters during the same trip are encouraged to review Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife regulations (WDFW Snake River Fall Chinook regulations). or contact WDFW before fishing to make sure they understand how the regulations apply to their specific situation.

The Bottom Line

The 2026 fall Chinook return is expected to be below average, particularly for natural-origin fish, but anglers should still have meaningful fishing and harvest opportunity this fall.

Remember the major regulation change for 2026: three adults may be harvested daily, but only one may be unclipped.

There are already fall Chinook entering Idaho and for those brave enough to battle the crowds, remember this: stay patient, respect thy fellow angler, and never take a good netter for granted.

Delta Air Lines Early Morning Flight Returns to Pocatello Regional Airport

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Observer Staff
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(City of Pocatello Press Release, August 26, 2026)

Travelers will soon have another convenient option when flying from Pocatello Regional Airport (PIH), with Delta Air Lines bringing back its early morning departure beginning October 2.

The returning flight is scheduled to depart Pocatello at 6:04 a.m., giving travelers an earlier start to their day and additional opportunities to connect to destinations through Delta’s hub at Salt Lake City International Airport.

The evening return flight is scheduled to arrive in Pocatello at 9:48 p.m.

The return of the early morning flight provides greater flexibility for both business and leisure travelers and makes it easier to begin and end a trip close to home.

“Having the early morning flight back is great news for our passengers and our community,” said Pocatello Regional Airport Manager Alan Evans. “This schedule gives travelers more flexibility and better opportunities to make connections while enjoying the convenience of flying from their local airport.”

Pocatello Regional Airport offers travelers convenient free parking, shorter lines, and easy access to commercial air service without the need to drive to a larger airport.

Passengers are encouraged to support local air service by choosing PIH when making their travel plans. Continued use of flights from Pocatello helps demonstrate demand for commercial air service in the region.

Travelers can view schedules and book flights at delta.com. For more information about Pocatello Regional Airport, visit pocatello.gov/airport.

This expanded air service supports Pocatello’s Comprehensive Plan 2040 vision of an economically robust community by strengthening connectivity and supporting economic growth. Learn more: pocatello.gov/DocumentCenter/View/318/Comprehensive-Plan-2040-PDF#page=19

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is the policy of the City of Pocatello to offer its public programs, services, and meetings in a manner that is readily accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities.  If you are disabled and require an accommodation, please contact Skyler Beebe with two (2) business days’ advance notice at sbeebe@pocatello.gov; 208.234.6248; or 5815 South 5th Avenue, Pocatello, Idaho.  Advance notification within this guideline will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility.

Sec. Rubio Marks Fifth Anniversary of the Attack at Abbey Gate

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(U.S. State Department Press Release, August 26, 2026)

[Wednesday marked] five years since the horrific attack at Kabul Airport’s Abbey Gate, a tragedy that resulted in the deaths of 13 American heroes and over 160 Afghan civilians.

We stand with the Gold Star families whose loved ones made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our great country. Our prayers will forever remain with them and the 45 U.S. service members who were injured during this terrible terrorist attack.

The Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan remains a dark stain on our nation’s history. The Trump Administration remains dedicated to honoring the memory of those who lost their lives at Abbey Gate – and during the country’s 20 years in Afghanistan – and providing the American people with the answers they deserve.

–U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio

House Majority Caucus Leader Jaron Crane Praises Meta Settlement

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(House Majority Caucus Press Release, August 26, 2026)

Today’s agreement with Meta represents an important victory for parents, children, and accountability.

For too long, some of the largest technology companies in the world have built products designed to capture more of our children’s time and attention while parents have been left fighting an uphill battle to protect them.

That needs to change and that is exactly why I drafted and carried H0542-The Stop Harms from Addictive Social Media Act with Senator Cindy Carlson. This law was the first of its kind in the United States and since its passing several other states have used our Bill (H0542) as their model legislation for their state.

I believe in free enterprise, limited government, and personal responsibility. But free enterprise does not mean corporations are free from accountability when their products harm children or when parents are denied the tools they need to protect their families.

This agreement puts parents back where they belong: in the driver’s seat.

Requiring stronger parental controls, age authentication, limits on endless scrolling, restrictions during school hours, and nighttime protections are commonsense steps that empower moms and dads rather than replacing them.

I commend Attorney General Raúl Labrador and the coalition of attorneys general who fought to hold Meta accountable.

I will continue to maintain a clear priority on protecting children, strengthening families, and improving online safety.

And this cannot end with Meta. If these protections are appropriate for Facebook and Instagram, parents deserve meaningful protections across all major platforms their children utilize (i.e. Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, etc.).

Technology should serve families — families should not serve the business model of Big Tech.

As Idahoans, we should defend innovation and free enterprise while never surrendering one of our most fundamental principles: parents have the primary responsibility and authority to raise and protect their children.

Together, we will continue leading the nation in defending that principle.

— Representative Jaron Crane

AG Labrador Delivers Largest Big Tech Settlement in History for Child Protection Against Facebook, Instagram

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Observer Staff
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(Attorney General’s Office Press Release, August 26, 2026)

BOISE, ID – Attorney General Raúl Labrador announced today a staggering $17.1 billion multistate settlement with Meta Platforms, Inc. This is one of the largest state consumer protection settlements on record outside the Big Tobacco settlements of the 1990s. The agreement resolves claims by 47 States and D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands that the company designed Instagram with intentionally addictive features, knowingly exposed young users to serious mental harms, and purposefully misled the public about the safety of its platforms. The settlement was reached mid-trial which began on August 18th in federal court and was expected to last several weeks. Under the settlement allocation, Idaho will receive a minimum of $89.2 million and a maximum of $127.7 million.

“Protecting children in Idaho is one of the most critical responsibilities of my office,” stated Attorney General Labrador. “Intentionally engineering any product to addict children is unconscionable. Meta’s design was a cynical attempt to create a lifetime user, regardless of the psychological damage and harm our children were exposed to. When this trial began, I said we would hold Meta accountable and today I’ve kept that promise.”  

Beginning in 2021, attorneys general across the country cooperated to investigate the social media industry for designing and promoting platforms to children and teens despite known harms. After a bipartisan, nationwide investigation found that Meta designed Instagram’s features to addict children while internally documenting the resulting mental health harms and failing to warn parents, 55 attorneys general sued Meta individually or as part of a consolidated federal lawsuit.

In addition to the payment, Meta must implement a sweeping set of safety features designed to protect children on Instagram and Facebook, including:

● Hard cap daily time limits and “Productive Pauses” for children: for its two platforms, Instagram and Facebook, a combined two-hour daily time limit with mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes to interrupt endless scrolling.  These limits remain in effect for five years. If Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube adopt comparable terms, the daily limit on each platform will drop to 60 minutes for 10 years.

● “Nighttime blocks” restricting children’s access from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.

● Limited school-time access for children, eliminating push notifications on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during the school year.

● Robust age assurance measures to more effectively verify the age of young users.

● Safer, age-appropriate content controls, including stronger safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders, and content related to suicide and self-harm.

● Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls.

● Limits on social comparison features, including beauty filters and visible “like” counts, that have been linked to poor mental health outcomes in kids and teens.

● Both the implementation and efficacy of the features will be regularly assessed by an independent auditor and the settling states.

The attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming joined the settlement.

Idaho Freedom Caucus–Kratom Crazies: Hero complex and media panic fuel poor legislation

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Observer Staff
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(Idaho Freedom Caucus, August 23, 2026)

 

The media loves to manufacture a crisis and many politicians love to play the hero to step in and save the day!

Today’s example of this is the absolute hysteria over an Indonesian leaf called Kratom.

People in Idaho have been using Kratom for years and even decades, often for arthritis and pain management, but also mood enhancement or even opioid withdrawal.

But this 2026 legislative session the hysteria got so intense that a freshman Idaho House member drafted a bill to ban natural leaf Kratom statewide and place it on Idaho’s Schedule One List alongside meth, heroin and fentanyl.

KTVB recently ran this sensational headline calling Kratom “Gas Station Heroin.” ‘Gas station heroin’: Idaho family shares warning after mother’s death linked to potent kratom compound | ktvb.com

The article opens up with a sad story about a 50-year-old woman, Kristy Boswell, who reportedly died after taking Kratom. However, you don’t have to be a member of the Health and Welfare Committee to know that medical issues can be rather complex.

To its credit, the KTVB article states that Ms. Boswell struggled with drug and alcohol addiction during her life. So, it seems logical that her body may have been weakened by those addictions over time.

But what a lot of people get wrong is Ms. Boswell did not, apparently, take Kratom. She took a compound called 7-OH.

Now it is true 7-OH is a compound found in Kratom. Due to our technological skill we are able to isolate the chemical compound in a lab and put it into a pill and sell it.

Here’s a question, did you know you can find cyanide inside apple seeds? It’s true and if you ate enough of them eventually it would make you sick and maybe even die.

But you probably wouldn’t ask your State Representative to draft legislation to ban apples from the grocery store over it.

What was hard for me to understand in the Committee hearing was why the author wouldn’t just propose a ban on 7-OH only. There seems to be widespread agreement on that. But instead of taking the victory and removing 7-OH (gas station heroin) from the shelves, she pushed for an all-out ban on natural leaf kratom as well.

The truth is Kratom has been available to the public for decades. In the Committee hearing and in preparation for the hearing to ban Kratom and 7-OH, we learned many people had taken natural leaf Kratom for up to 20 years with much benefit.

Why would we want to take natural leaf Kratom away from people for whom it is helping?

Further, it is ironic that the people trying to ban Kratom highlight the claim that withdrawal is very dangerous, and yet that is exactly what they will be causing with their ban.

And despite using that claim for political gain, proponents of the ban offered current kratom users nothing to help them withdrawal, effectively pulling the rug out from under them with little warning.

There was a Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Tammy Nichols that would have put Kratom on a regulatory structure (like most other imported products) where Kratom would be tested before distribution but the legislation was not able to find enough support before the session concluded.

Hopefully next January if the legislature takes up the issue we can tune out the emotional over-reaction and carefully listen to all sides.

By Rep. Rob Beiswenger, Republican, District 8, Member of the House Health and Welfare Committee

 

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