Meta has agreed to pay over $18 billion to settle a sweeping lawsuit that accused the company of deliberately designing addictive systems on Facebook and Instagram despite knowing the risks to users. The settlement brings an end to a trial that had just begun in California and was set to run for several months, potentially exposing further internal decision-making.
The case was brought by 29 US state attorneys general, and focused on how Meta’s products impacted teenagers. Meta could have faced over $1 trillion in combined damage claims had the case gone against it, meaning the settlement removed a huge risk in one fell swoop, both in terms of reputation and documents it would have had to release to the public, which had already painted an unflattering picture of how the company considered the trade-off between user safety and growth at the beginning of the trial.
Not just the financial settlement, Meta has also agreed to a long list of restrictions designed around protecting those under the age of 18. This list represents one of the most comprehensive sets of teenage safety restrictions any social platform has had to agree to, and covers almost every aspect of how teens currently use Facebook and Instagram.
What Changes for Teen Users
The core change is a daily default limit of two hours for teen users to spend on Facebook and Instagram in total. This applies across all their accounts, and can only be turned off by a parent. In addition to this, Meta will by default block access to its apps between midnight and 6am, and mute notifications between 8am and 3pm while at school.
Teenagers will receive built in prompts to break away from their screens, with a prompt appearing after every 15 minutes of continuous use of Facebook or Instagram, and further alerts at 60 minutes and 90 minutes of use per day.
Several other defaults will be changed or added, including a switchable non-algorithmic feed rather than the algorithmically generated one, a turn-off for autoplay to keep videos and reels from playing one after the other, and the removal of like counts and reaction totals from teenagers’ view by default. These latter changes have long been associated with increases in social comparison between teens and therefore anxiety.
Meta will also be removing certain content features for teenagers, including filters to use cosmetic surgery or extreme makeup filters. This change is in response to years of criticism of how these filters can impact the self-image of those using them. The company has stated its intention to invest more in parental supervision features and tools to allow parents to know what settings are available for teens and how they can use them.
One notable exception sits outside this list, with Meta confirming that direct messaging on their apps will not be affected by the new night mode, time limit or school mode features, allowing teenagers to continue messaging their friends and family during these windows while they are asleep. This carve out matters, as messaging has increasingly become where people, including teenagers, spend their time and attention rather than on public feeds.
Cracking Down on Underage Accounts
Age verification has been one of the main issues for both Meta and its competitors for a number of years and the settlement encourages the company to invest further in this area. Meta stated that it would be strengthening the technology it uses to detect accounts which are likely to belong to a user between 13 and 17 that have incorrectly stated an adult birthdate, and allocating more resources towards detecting accounts which may belong to children under the age of 13, who are not permitted to be on the platforms at all.
Meta reiterated that the success of this endeavor will only come from the cooperation of app stores, and has repeatedly called for them to provide developers with verified age information so that age-appropriate protections can apply to every app a teenager downloads rather than just Meta’s own products. Without this common verification system, teenagers can simply move between apps to avoid any restrictions on any one of them.
A Deal Tied to What TikTok and YouTube Do Next
Much of these restrictions are designed to encourage the rest of the industry to adopt some of the protections. Meta stated that most of the new settings will remain in place for 10 years, however the initial commitment on time limits only guarantees five years, unless TikTok and YouTube adopt the same restrictions, to which Meta will extend its own commitment out to 10 years as well.
The payout itself follows the same structure, with the $18 billion will be paid out in annual installments across a decade, and around 70% of it goes directly to the states involved. The remaining 30%, close to $5.3 billion, only being released if YouTube and TikTok agree to adopt the same teenage usage restrictions and each pledge to pay a matching amount. Essentially, Meta has created an economic incentive for its two biggest competitors to follow its lead, and putting pressure on them publicly to do so.
Meta has put this pressure on them explicitly in its own statement, arguing that all platforms need to apply the same protections since teens move across many apps throughout the day and if a teen is restricted on Instagram but not on TikTok, the teen may simply spend more time on the app.
How This Connects to Meta’s Other Legal Troubles
This settlement is not in isolation, as this month a New Mexico court ruled against Meta in a separate case over teen protections, ordering the company to pause push notifications for under-18 users overnight and while at school, hide like counts by default, and cap monthly teen usage at 90 hours over Facebook and Instagram. This ruling essentially laid the groundwork for the terms Meta has agreed to nationally, although the new two-hour daily cap is significantly tighter than the 90-hour monthly limit set in New Mexico.
Meta is also seeing rising pressure internationally, with countries such as New Zealand recently introducing their own restrictions in relation to teenager social media use. Since that trend has been growing, it is likely that Meta had already been preparing some of these changes regardless of the outcome of the US lawsuit.
Why Meta Chose to Settle
Meta’s decision to settle the case rather than go to court is one that was driven by more than the monetary aspect, as the company is currently in a much bigger push to bring AI tools, what it calls personal superintelligence, to its user base, and this plan crucially requires individuals to trust Meta with more of their personal data. A drawn out trial which exposed internal safety decisions would directly work against this trust, at a time when trust in Meta is already fragile.
There is also a usage aspect, as Facebook’s usage has been decreasing for years, and teenager engagement has long been a weak point for the platform. Consequently, it has a lower cost to restrict teen usage than it would for a platform such as TikTok where teen engagement is key to the business. By encouraging TikTok and YouTube to match its commitments, Meta is potentially trying to slow down a competitor more than it is losing anything significant of its own.
Meta also has a opportunity to gain elsewhere while feed usage decreases, as it owns Messenger and WhatsApp, the two largest messaging platforms in the world, and messaging is exempt from all of the new restrictions. If teens spend less time scrolling feeds and more time messaging instead, that activity still remains within Meta’s ecosystem.
What It Means Going Forward
For now, the settlement gives Meta a clear set of rules to follow, and a big legal threat removed. It also puts pressure on TikTok and YouTube to decide whether they will match these protections voluntarily or wait for regulators and courts to force their hand. Given how aggressively teen safety legislation and litigation has been moving this year, that decision may not be optional for long.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: How much does Meta have to pay in this settlement?
Meta has agreed to pay over $18 billion, which will be paid out in annual installments across 10 years. Around 70% will go to the states involved, and the remaining 30% will only be released if TikTok and YouTube adopt the same restrictions on teenagers.
Q2: What is the new daily time limit for teens on Facebook and Instagram?
Teens will have a default of two hour daily usage limit which applies to all their accounts on both apps combined. Only a parent can turn off this limit.
Q3: Will teens still be able to send messages during restricted hours?
Yes. Meta has confirmed that direct messaging features are excluded from the night mode, time limit and school mode restrictions, allowing teens to still message their friends and family.
Q4: What happens to teen accounts between midnight and 6am?
Meta will be implementing a default block on its apps for teen users between midnight and 6am as part of a night mode restriction included in the settlement.
Q5: Does this settlement affect like counts on posts?
Yes. Teens will no longer see the number of likes and reactions on posts on default due to the new agreement.
Q6: Why was the settlement amount tied to TikTok and YouTube’s actions?
Meta structured the payout and the length of its commitments based on whether TikTok and YouTube adopt the same daily usage restrictions, as it aims to push industry adoption of these protections.
Q7: How does this settlement relate to the New Mexico case against Meta?
A New Mexico court ruling earlier this month set similar restrictions, including notification pauses and hidden like counts, which helped to form the framework used in this broader nationwide settlement.
Q8: What tools is Meta removing for teen users?
Meta is removing filters to use cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters for teens, and will be turning off autoplay by default and offering a non-algorithmic feed option.
