OAKLAND, United States — Meta has agreed to pay as much as $18 billion and impose new restrictions on teenage use of Facebook and Instagram under a proposed settlement with a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general.
The agreement, announced on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, would resolve claims that Meta designed features intended to keep children using its platforms while failing to disclose risks to their mental health.
The company denied the allegations and admitted no wrongdoing.
The parties have asked the United States District Court for the Northern District of California to enter the agreement as a consent judgment.
The California attorney general’s office and Meta said the settlement remained subject to judicial approval.
Limits on Teen Accounts
The agreement would introduce a cumulative two-hour daily limit for users aged 13 to 17 across Facebook and Instagram.
Teenagers could not remove the restriction without permission from a parent.
Meta would also prevent teenage users from accessing most features between midnight and 6 a.m.
Notifications would be muted between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., apart from direct messages and account security or safety alerts.
Teenagers would receive prompts after every 15 minutes of continuous use and further reminders after reaching 60 and 90 minutes in a day.
Other provisions would hide the number of likes and reactions on posts by default, block cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters, and allow teenagers to disable autoplay and select a feed that does not rely on algorithmic recommendations.
Meta also agreed to strengthen its systems for identifying users who misrepresent their ages.
The company would be required to apply protections intended for teenagers even when its technology determines that an account holder aged between 13 and 17 has provided an adult birth date.
An independent auditor would assess Meta’s compliance annually for five years.
“Ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta,” the company said. “We want to get this right for parents and teens, and that’s why we partnered with state attorneys general to set a new industry standard.”
Payments Spread Over a Decade
Meta said approximately 70 per cent of the settlement, or about $12.7 billion, would be distributed to participating states in annual instalments over 10 years.
The money could support youth online safety programmes and other state priorities.
Payment of the remaining 30 per cent, estimated at $5.3 billion, would depend on YouTube and TikTok adopting specified safeguards and making corresponding payments to the states.
Those safeguards would include a one-hour daily limit, overnight restrictions and measures to identify the ages of users.
If the two platforms joined the agreement, Meta’s daily limit would also fall to one hour per app, while its night restrictions would expand from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
The proposed settlement brings together 52 attorneys general representing states, territories and the District of Columbia.
Its central litigation arose from a lawsuit filed jointly by 29 states in 2023.
A Trial Halted After Opening Arguments
The agreement was reached shortly after a federal trial began in California.
Four states participating in the proceedings had sought as much as $1.4 trillion in damages and court-ordered changes to Meta’s platforms.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, had begun testifying and was expected to return to the witness stand.
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was also scheduled to give evidence.
The states accused Meta of using features such as endless feeds, frequent notifications and personalised recommendations to encourage compulsive use among children and teenagers.
They also alleged that the company misled families about the safety of its services and unlawfully collected information from children younger than 13 without parental permission.
Meta described the claims as unsubstantiated and said it had invested extensively in protections for younger users.
North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson said the states concluded that an agreement would deliver safety measures sooner than continued litigation.
“Litigation would mean that we were still many years away from bringing any of these child safety upgrades to these platforms, it would risk losing another generation,” Jackson said.
The settlement would not resolve hundreds of separate lawsuits filed by families, individuals and school districts.
Those cases also accuse Meta and other social media companies of designing services that encourage addictive behaviour and harm children. Meta continues to deny those claims.
