Meta agrees to sweeping teen safety changes on Instagram and Facebook
Meta has settled with attorneys general from 51 US states and territories, agreeing to new safeguards for teens on Instagram and Facebook, including daily time limits and nighttime restrictions. Most measures must stay in place for at least 10 years.
Meta has reached a settlement with attorneys general representing 51 US states and territories, agreeing to overhaul how teenagers can use Instagram and Facebook. The deal comes out of a nationwide lawsuit accusing Meta, alongside Google, TikTok, and Snap, of failing to protect children and deliberately designing their platforms to be addictive.
The new rules won't apply in New Mexico, which is locked in a separate legal dispute with Meta, or in Florida, which already bars children under 14 from opening social media accounts. Texas reached its own similar settlement with the company.
Key changes
Within four months, teens will get access to a default feed option that isn't shaped by Meta's personalized recommendation engine, and parents will be able to set this as their child's default.
Meta has committed to strengthening its age assurance systems, aiming to identify and remove users under 13 while applying teen protections to those aged 13 to 17. An independent auditor will review the system, and new, unverified users will get teen protections automatically.
Teens will be limited to a combined two hours of daily use across Instagram and Facebook, unless a parent disables the cap; the limit also extends to any alternate accounts. Scrolling prompts will appear every 15 minutes to discourage mindless use, and between midnight and 6AM, teens will lose access to most platform features aside from messaging.
During school hours, from 8AM to 3PM, push notifications will be muted by default except for direct messages and safety alerts. Teens will also be able to disable autoplay, like counts will be hidden by default, and access to extreme makeup filters will be restricted.
Meta says it will keep existing protections in place too, such as defaulting teens to private accounts and limiting how adults can contact them.
The company must pay $17.1 billion to the states over 10 years, though $5.3 billion of that is contingent on TikTok and YouTube adopting similar restrictions.
