Meta Agrees to $18 Billion Settlement Over Teen Social Media Use

Meta has agreed to pay more than $18 billion to settle a landmark lawsuit brought by 29 US attorneys general over alleged harms to young people on Facebook and Instagram.

The settlement, reached as the trial was underway in California, also requires Meta to introduce a series of restrictions and safeguards for users under 18. The case had accused the company of designing addictive features while being aware of potential risks to teenagers.

Under the agreement, Facebook and Instagram will introduce a default daily usage limit of two hours for users under 18. Parents will have the ability to disable the limit. Teen accounts will also be blocked from using Meta’s apps between midnight and 6 a.m. by default, while notifications will be muted during school hours.

Users will receive break reminders after 15 minutes of continuous use, as well as additional prompts after reaching 60 and 90 minutes of daily usage. Teenagers will also be able to select a non-algorithmic feed as their default and disable autoplay.

Other measures include hiding like and reaction counts by default, restricting access to cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters, and expanding parental supervision tools.

Meta also said it will strengthen systems designed to identify accounts belonging to younger users, including cases where teenagers provide an inaccurate age when signing up. The company is calling for app stores to provide developers with verified age information to help platforms enforce age-based protections.

The financial settlement will be paid in annual instalments over 10 years. Around 70% of the payment will be distributed to participating states during that period, while the remaining 30%, approximately $5.3 billion, is conditional on TikTok and YouTube adopting comparable daily usage restrictions and making matching payments.