Meta has agreed to enact major child safety changes on Facebook and Instagram, including strict screen time caps. This comes as part of an approximately $18 billion settlement designed to resolve claims brought by 29 U.S. states over children’s safety.
The new protections will automatically apply to users under 18 in participating U.S. states and territories, pending judicial approval. These changes will significantly alter how younger users experience the platforms.
Sweeping New Restrictions for Teens
The settlement dictates several core changes to Meta's applications for users under 18. The majority of these controls are required to remain in place for 10 years.
Teens will face a default two-hour daily time limit combined across both Facebook and Instagram, though parents can override this cap. The apps will also enforce a default "Night Mode" block that prevents underage users from accessing, posting, or viewing content between midnight and 6 a.m.
Additionally, a "School Mode" will mute notifications from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Direct messages are exempt from these three restrictions.
The platforms will prompt teens after every 15 minutes of continuous screen time. Users will also receive prompts when their daily usage reaches 60 and 90 minutes.
Users will have the option to select a non-algorithmic feed that avoids personalization through recommendation systems, a setting parents can mandate. Teens will also be able to turn off autoplay, which parents can also require.
Other changes include hiding likes and reactions on posts by default, and blocking access to cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters.
Meta plans to strengthen age assurance tools to catch accounts used by users under 13, and ensure accounts used by teens aged 13 to 17 have "experiences designed for teens". New parental controls will notify parents if a teen links a second account or interacts with suspicious accounts.
Demands for Industry Parity
The roughly $18 billion payout is designed to fund online youth safety initiatives and will be distributed over 10 years. This total is far less than Meta's 2025 net income of $60.5 billion.
Meta is withholding $5.3 billion of that sum unless rivals TikTok and YouTube implement similar safety measures.
If TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat adopt similar rules, Meta says it will lower its daily usage limit to just one hour per app, a rule that would stay in place for a decade. It would also expand Night Mode to run from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Meta is asking YouTube and TikTok to add a one-hour daily limit, night mode, and age assurance measures. The company also wants the rivals to pay $5.3 billion each to match Meta's withheld funds. Meta published an open letter calling on the companies to join the initiative.
If only Meta applies these limits, the company likely fears teens will simply migrate to TikTok and YouTube.
Meta had been in a federal trial over the lawsuit before settling. Several states, including California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey, were seeking closer to $200 billion in civil penalties.
Florida declined to settle and is continuing litigation. New Mexico was also uninvolved because it won its own case against Meta earlier this year.