Meta has reached a sweeping settlement with 47 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and three U.S. territories over allegations that Facebook and Instagram harmed children and teenagers. Under the agreement, the technology giant will pay about $16.7 billion over 10 years while making major changes to how its platforms operate for users under 18.
Those changes include a two-hour daily usage limit for minors, automatic blocking of access between midnight and 6 a.m., removal of visible like counts, restrictions on beauty filters and stronger age-verification systems.
The settlement allows Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to avoid a high-profile trial that could have carried significant financial risk. Meta continues to deny wrongdoing, while prosecutors argued that the company’s potential exposure could have reached as much as $200 billion had the litigation continued.
Two hours a day
The most significant changes concern the way children and teenagers will be allowed to use Instagram and Facebook. Under court supervision lasting 10 years, Meta will impose a two-hour daily usage limit for users under 18. Private messaging and long-form video viewing will not count toward that limit.
Between midnight and 6 a.m., minors will be automatically blocked from using the platforms, although parents or other responsible adults will be able to override the restriction. Teenagers will also be able to switch to a feed that is not based on Meta’s recommendation algorithms and disable autoplay for videos.
Meta has also agreed to hide like counts for minors and prohibit their use of beauty filters. The measures are intended to reduce features that have been linked in lawsuits and public debate to social comparison, appearance-related pressure and compulsive social media use.
Meta's apps
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The agreement also seeks to make it more difficult for users to simply lie about their age. Meta will be required to operate an improved age-estimation and verification system that will be reviewed by an independent monitor. Anyone who refuses to verify their age will be treated as a minor by default and subjected to the restrictions.
The requirements are unusually detailed. The maximum error rate for identifying users aged 16 to 17 will be set at 10%, while for users aged 13 to 15 it will be limited to 3%. Meta itself will also face closer oversight. Any experiment the company wants to conduct involving users under 18 will have to be registered in advance with a court-appointed authority. An independent auditor will monitor compliance with the settlement over the entire 10-year period.
Not every state joined
Despite the settlement’s scale, several states are not part of the agreement. Florida declined to join and will continue its separate legal case against Meta. New Mexico is also outside the settlement after pursuing its own case against the company and winning a $375 million judgment.
Texas reached a separate agreement with Meta that includes more than $1 billion in payments and additional safety measures. When the Texas agreement and other related payments are added to the main settlement, Meta’s total financial burden approaches $18 billion.
The central agreement will apply only in participating states and territories. It also stops short of requiring Meta to fundamentally change its business model. The company will still be able to operate personalized recommendation systems and targeted advertising, two of the main engines of its business.
California is expected to receive the largest share of the settlement, estimated at between $1.5 billion and $2.2 billion. Colorado is expected to receive nearly $615 million over nine years, with some of the money going toward mental health and child-safety programs. Massachusetts also plans to direct a significant portion of its share toward youth mental health initiatives and safer technology in schools.
Mark Zuckerberg
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Years of allegations
The settlement follows years of lawsuits and criticism over the impact of Instagram and Facebook on children and teenagers. States alleged, among other things, that Meta designed its platforms in ways that encouraged compulsive use and relied on features intended to keep young users engaged for as long as possible.
The lawsuits also linked social media use to anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts among teenagers, and alleged that the company collected information from children under 13 without parental consent. Meta has consistently denied the allegations and said it has invested heavily in protecting younger users.
The criticism also reached Congress. During a highly publicized Senate hearing in January 2024, Zuckerberg turned toward families whose children were allegedly harmed by social media and apologized to them.
Meta is not stopping with the changes it has agreed to make itself. The company is now calling on TikTok, YouTube and Snap to adopt similar standards and settle comparable lawsuits pending against them. “This framework will only work if all our competitors join us,” Meta said.
The company plans to publish an open letter to TikTok and YouTube in major U.S. newspapers calling for industry-wide rules. The settlement does not end the broader legal and political fight over social media’s impact on children.
But it does mark a major shift: features that were once left almost entirely to the discretion of technology companies, from like counts and recommendation feeds to nighttime use and daily screen time, will now be subject to direct court oversight.