Not many people would count paying $18bn they didn’t expect to when they woke up that morning as a victory. Yet for Meta, the owners of Facebook and Instagram, the agreement with 52 US attorneys general(（美国各州）检察长) to settle claims that it designed its products to be addictive(使人上瘾的) to children, and misled people about their safety, could be described as a win of sorts(某种程度上的，勉强称得上的).
没有多少人会把一觉醒来就要支付180亿美元这种意料之外的开销视为胜利。然而，对于Facebook和Instagram的母公司Meta来说，与美国52位州检察长达成的和解协议——了结其产品设计对儿童具有成瘾性、并在安全性上误导公众的指控——多少可以算作一种胜利。
Meta denies wrongdoing(不法行为，坏事), and the amount it plans to pay will be spread over a decade. Some of it is contingent on(取决于，视…而定) other big tech firms not named in its case coughing up too. The cash is chump change(微不足道的钱，小钱) for Meta, which made around $60bn in profit last year. More damaging to the tech giant in the long run could be the agreement to unwind(解开，拆除，撤销) some of the mechanics(机制，运作方式) it has spent two decades perfecting to keep us on its platforms.
Meta否认有不当行为，并计划将这笔款项分摊到十年内支付。其中部分款项取决于其案件未点名的其他大型科技公司是否也愿意掏钱。对于去年盈利约600亿美元的Meta来说，这笔现金不过是小钱。从长远来看，对这家科技巨头更具杀伤力的，或许是它同意拆除一些自己花了二十年精心完善、旨在让我们留在其平台上的机制。
Under-18s in the US will face a default(默认的，系统默认状态) two-hour daily limit on Facebook and Instagram, with access blocked overnight – unless a parent changes the setting. Teachers will be glad to hear notifications will be muted(静音的，被减弱的) during school hours, while teenagers will be nagged(被唠叨，被不断催促) as much by the platform itself as their parents about exactly how long they have spent staring at their screens.
美国的18岁以下用户将默认面临Facebook和Instagram每日两小时的限制，夜间访问将被禁止——除非家长更改设置。老师们会高兴地得知，通知将在上课时间静音，而青少年们将像被父母唠叨一样，被平台本身提醒他们究竟在屏幕前花了多长时间。