Meta has agreed to a major settlement with US states over allegations that Facebook and Instagram were deliberately designed to keep children and teenagers engaged for excessive periods.
The agreement introduces some of the strongest restrictions Meta has ever accepted for teenage users.
Under the proposed terms, teen accounts in participating US states and territories will face overnight curfews, daily usage limits, reduced notifications and greater parental control.
Meta will also face stricter requirements for verifying users’ ages and protecting children from potentially harmful content.
The settlement follows years of criticism from parents, researchers and policymakers over the impact of social media on young users.
Meta to Pay Billions Under Settlement
Meta will pay approximately $11.7 billion to settle the claims, with the amount spread over 10 annual instalments.
The company could be required to pay an additional $5 billion if competing social media platforms agree to comparable commitments.
That would take the potential settlement value to about $16.7 billion.
Meta will also pay approximately $75 million to cover legal costs incurred by the states.
Another $459 million will be paid to resolve older claims connected with the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
The money received by the states is expected to support programmes focused on youth mental health, crisis services, after-school activities and digital literacy.
However, individual state legislatures will determine how the funds are ultimately allocated.
The settlement was quickly approved by a federal judge.
Teen Accounts to Face Midnight Curfew
One of the most significant changes will be a default overnight restriction on teenage accounts.
Within six months of the settlement’s implementation, teen accounts will generally be blocked from using Facebook and Instagram between midnight and 6am local time.
Teenagers will still be able to access messaging and account settings during the restricted period.
However, those features will be limited so users cannot continue browsing the wider platforms.
Meta will also disable push notifications for teenage accounts between 10pm and 7am.
The restrictions are intended to reduce overnight social media use and encourage healthier online routines.
Teenagers will not be able to remove the curfew themselves.
Parents will have the ability to approve changes or make the restrictions even stricter.
Daily Social Media Use Limited
Teen accounts will also receive a default daily usage limit of two hours across Meta’s participating applications.
The allowance will reset at midnight each day.
However, some activities will not count toward the two-hour limit.
Messaging and long-form video viewing will be excluded from the cumulative usage calculation.
If rival platforms agree to equivalent restrictions, the rules could become even stricter.
Under that arrangement, the overnight restriction would expand from midnight–6am to 10pm–7am.
The daily allowance would also fall to 60 minutes per individual app, while total usage across participating platforms would remain capped at two hours.
The arrangement is designed to prevent teenagers from simply moving their screen time between different social media services.
School-Hour Notifications Could Also Be Blocked
The settlement includes restrictions on notifications during school hours.
Teenagers would have notifications silenced between 8am and 3pm on weekdays during the defined school period.
The school-hour restriction would apply between August 15 and June 15.
The goal is to reduce interruptions during classroom hours and limit the ability of social media platforms to draw students back into their apps throughout the school day.
The changes would represent a significant shift in how Meta’s platforms operate for younger users.
Teens to Get Non-Personalised Feed Option
Meta will also be required to offer teenagers a feed that is not based on algorithmic personalisation.
The feature must be made available within four months of the settlement’s implementation.
Like counts will also be hidden by default for teenage users.
Another major restriction involves appearance-related content.
Cosmetic surgery filters will be prohibited for teen accounts under the new requirements.
The changes reflect growing concerns about the influence of personalised recommendation systems and appearance-focused content on young users.
Rather than constantly tailoring content based on individual engagement patterns, teenagers would have an option to view a less personalised feed.
Meta Given One Year for Stronger Age Verification
The settlement also places significant pressure on Meta to improve its age-verification systems.
The company will have one year to deploy an age-assurance system meeting specific accuracy standards.
The system must not incorrectly classify more than 3% of users aged 13 to 15 as adults.
For users aged 16 and 17, the error rate must not exceed 10%.
New accounts whose ages remain unverified after 14 days will automatically be treated as teen accounts, regardless of the age entered during registration.
The rules are intended to make it more difficult for underage users to bypass protections by simply entering a different birth year.
Additional Protection for Children Under 13
US law prohibits children under 13 from using the platforms.
Under the settlement, Meta will be required to presume that a reported account belongs to an underage child unless there is evidence showing otherwise.
The company must also examine the friend networks of deleted underage accounts to identify other potentially underage users.
This provision aims to address a long-standing challenge faced by social media platforms: children can sometimes evade age restrictions by creating accounts with false birth dates.
The new requirements are designed to make enforcement more proactive.
Parents Get Greater Control
Parents will receive additional tools for supervising teenage accounts.
Parents overseeing a teen account would receive daily notifications showing how much time the teenager has spent on the platforms.
They would also receive prompts encouraging them to review account settings.
Parents would have the ability to modify usage limits and control school-hour settings.
Teenagers would not have unilateral authority to override the restrictions.
The measures are designed to give parents greater visibility into how their children are using social media.
Faster Response to Harmful Content
Meta will also face new requirements for responding to reports involving illegal or offensive content.
The company must respond to reports submitted by teenagers within six hours in at least 90% of cases.
The requirement applies to reports filed in English or Spanish.
The provision is intended to ensure that potentially harmful content is addressed more quickly rather than remaining accessible for extended periods.
The settlement will also introduce independent oversight.
An independent auditor will monitor Meta’s compliance with the agreement for 10 years.
The auditor will be selected jointly by Meta and a committee representing participating states.
Meta will be responsible for paying the auditor’s costs.
29 States Accused Meta of Targeting Children
The settlement resolves claims brought by 29 US states.
The states accused Meta of deliberately designing its platforms to keep children engaged, misleading the public about potential risks and unlawfully collecting personal information from children under 13.
The legal battle was among the most significant challenges Meta has faced over its treatment of young users.
The company had warned that losing the case in court could potentially expose it to more than $1 trillion in penalties.
The settlement therefore removes a major legal threat while forcing Meta to accept substantial changes to how its platforms operate for teenagers.
Meta Calls on TikTok and YouTube to Follow
Meta has also called on competing platforms to introduce similar restrictions.
The company specifically pointed to major rivals such as YouTube and TikTok.
Meta argues that protections for teenagers will be more effective if young people face comparable rules across different platforms.
The company has also indicated that the full implementation of some settlement provisions is linked to equivalent commitments from rival platforms.
Meta said the restrictions currently apply only in participating US states and territories.
The company also said it would continue discussions with parents, policymakers and regulators internationally about measures designed to protect teenagers online.
Social Media Faces Growing Pressure Over Teen Safety
The settlement comes as governments and schools around the world are increasingly examining how social media affects children.
Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok have faced growing criticism over issues including excessive screen time, algorithmic recommendations, online harassment and exposure to harmful content.
Several jurisdictions have introduced or considered stronger age restrictions.
Schools have also increasingly moved towards restricting mobile-phone use during school hours.
The latest Meta settlement adds another major development to that global debate.
For years, social media companies have argued that parents should play the central role in determining how children use their platforms.
The new agreement shifts more responsibility directly onto Meta.
More Legal Challenges Remain
Despite the settlement, Meta’s legal battles over youth safety are far from over.
The company continues to face thousands of additional personal injury claims.
It is also facing litigation brought by school districts.
Those cases could create further financial and regulatory pressure on the company.
The settlement with the US states, however, represents a major change in Meta’s approach to teenage accounts.
If implemented as outlined, young users in participating states will face substantially less unrestricted access to Facebook and Instagram.
The combination of overnight curfews, daily usage limits, parental controls, stronger age verification and changes to personalised feeds marks one of the most significant sets of restrictions Meta has agreed to impose on its platforms.
For parents and policymakers, the agreement could become a model for future regulation of social media platforms.
For Meta, it represents a costly settlement and a major change in how its services are designed for millions of young users.
