Meta agrees to sweeping teen protections on Instagram, Facebook in draft settlements with bipartisan group of attorneys general

Meta Platforms Inc. announced Aug. 26 that it had reached a proposed settlement with a bipartisan group of 52 attorneys general requiring new protections for children and teens on Instagram and Facebook. 

Meta said the agreement — which requires court approval before taking effect — calls for the company to pay nearly $18 billion to the participating states and jurisdictions over 10 years. About $12.7 billion is guaranteed, while the remaining $5.3 billion is contingent on YouTube and TikTok adopting specified safeguards and making matching payments.

The agreement resolves claims that Meta designed features that encouraged compulsive use among children and teens while misleading users, parents, and the public about the associated mental health risks, according to Reuters. Meta did not admit wrongdoing.

>> New Mexico jury finds Meta harmed children’s mental health and safety, violated state law <<

Under the agreement, protections would apply automatically to accounts belonging to users under 18 in participating jurisdictions. According to Meta, the measures include: 

• A default two-hour daily limit across Facebook and Instagram, including time spent on multiple accounts. Teens could disable the limit only with a parent’s permission.
• A default “Night Mode” blocking teens from posting or viewing feeds, Stories, Explore pages, Reels, and similar features between midnight and 6 a.m.
• Default muting of most notifications between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., with exceptions for direct messages and account security or safety alerts.
• Prompts after every 15 minutes of continuous use and when a teen’s total daily usage reaches 60 and 90 minutes.
• The option to make a non-algorithmic feed, which is not personalized by Meta’s recommendation systems, the default.
• An option to disable autoplay, with parents able to require that setting.
• Stronger age-assurance systems, default private accounts, restrictions on unwanted contact from adults, enhanced parental controls, and limits on cosmetic filters and visible “like” counts.

Most of the requirements must remain in place for 10 years, although the daily time limit and Night Mode initially carry five-year commitments. An independent auditor would review Meta’s compliance annually for five years and report its findings to the participating states. 

Meta Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney called on TikTok and YouTube to adopt the same measures, arguing that the framework “will only work if all our peers join us” because teens “move fluidly across dozens of apps.” 

“As a parent, I’m proud of both the work Meta has done to protect kids historically, and of this new groundbreaking agreement,” Mahoney said in Meta’s statement. “But its success depends on all other social media platforms following Meta’s lead.”

>> Pope Leo tells young people social media can’t substitute community in one’s faith life <<

According to Meta, the participating jurisdictions are Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, the Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. 

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said his state declined to join the settlement because he considered the proposed payments inadequate compared with the alleged harm to children.

“The payouts are peanuts compared to the profound harms Meta’s profit-driven addictive features inflicted on kids,” Uthmeier wrote in an Aug. 26 X post, adding that Florida would continue pursuing its case at trial.

American Principles Project President Terry Schilling praised the agreement in an Aug. 26 X post, calling it a “real win” for parents. 

“Social media has been the Wild West — addictive design, no limits, and kids bouncing from one app to the next the second you lock one down,” he said. “That’s why this only works if YouTube and TikTok follow. One platform doing the right thing just pushes kids onto the next one.”

He compared the proposed framework to the film industry’s age-based rating system, arguing that children need the “same basic guardrails online that we’ve had at the movies for 50 years.” 

CatholicVote Director of Government Affairs Tom McClusky also welcomed the new measures as a first step but added that “more needs to be done.”

“In addition, TikTok, Google, Snapchat, and Apple must do the same: give parents real authority and put the protection of children first,” McClusky told Zeale News. “Parents — not Silicon Valley — are the primary guardians of their sons and daughters. Our kids deserve better.”

The agreement comes amid mounting legal and legislative efforts to protect children from potentially addictive social media features. The California Catholic Conference is urging residents to support AB 1709, proposed legislation that would generally prohibit social media companies from offering certain “addictive features” to children younger than 16. 

The Catholic bishops said rates of depression, anxiety, and self-harm have “skyrocketed” since 2007, especially among young girls. They also cited research indicating that the average teen spends almost five hours a day on social media.

“Young people self-report feeling addicted, experiencing damaging messages to their body image and self-esteem from the comparisons and endless scrolling, receiving unwanted contact by strangers, and exposure to harmful content including eating disorders, suicidal ideation, violence, pornography, and drug use,” the conference said.

“Children have the right to be children and to parental protection from harmful materials,” the state’s Catholic conference added. “Establishing the age of receiving a social media account at 16 helps preserve children's social and emotional development and parents' rights to safeguard their children from such harms.”

>> New Idaho law enacts social media restrictions for minors <<