Meta agrees to approximately $18-billion teen safety settlement

• Photo courtesy of Meta

Meta has agreed to pay approximately $18 billion under a proposed multistate agreement that would impose stricter protections for teenagers using Facebook and Instagram.

The agreement, announced Wednesday, Aug. 26, was reached with a bipartisan group of 52 attorneys general representing US states, territories, and the District of Columbia. It remains subject to judicial approval.

Meta said the payment would be distributed in annual installments over 10 years and could fund youth online-safety initiatives and other state priorities.

Participating states would receive about $12.7 billion, equivalent to 70% of the settlement. The remaining $5.3 billion would be released only if TikTok and YouTube adopt specified teen-safety measures and provide matching payments.

Under those conditions, TikTok and YouTube must each implement a one-hour daily limit, overnight restrictions, and age-assurance measures. Each company must also contribute a payment tied to its portion of the remaining funds.

Meta expects to record an approximately $10-billion legal expense in the third quarter of 2026 because of the agreement. The company said the charge was not included in the expense forecast provided during its second-quarter earnings call.

Mandatory protections for teens

The agreement would automatically place users under 18 in more restrictive settings on Facebook and Instagram across participating jurisdictions.

Teenagers would face a cumulative two-hour daily limit across both platforms. They could disable it only with parental permission. The limit would include time spent through multiple accounts detected by Meta.

Most Facebook and Instagram functions would be unavailable to teens from midnight to 6 a.m., while notifications would be muted between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Direct messages and security or safety alerts would remain accessible.

Teens would also receive prompts after every 15 minutes of continuous screen time and when their total daily usage reaches 60 and 90 minutes.

Other protections include options for a non-personalized feed and disabled autoplay, hidden like and reaction counts by default, and restrictions on cosmetic-surgery and extreme-makeup filters.

Meta also committed to improving its technology for identifying accounts belonging to children under 13 and teenagers who may have entered an adult birth date.

The company would maintain private-account defaults, age-appropriate content settings, and restrictions intended to prevent suspicious adults from finding or contacting teenagers. Parents would receive additional controls and information about their children’s accounts and activity.

Meta presses rivals to join

Most of the agreement’s provisions must remain in place for 10 years. The daily limit and overnight restrictions initially carry five-year commitments.

If TikTok and YouTube join the framework, those commitments would be extended to 10 years. The default time limit would then fall to one hour per app, while the overnight restriction would expand from midnight–6 a.m. to 10 p.m.–7 a.m.

Meta said an industry-wide approach is needed because teenagers can move to other platforms when restrictions apply to only one service.

“We need an industry-wide solution,” Meta Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said as he urged TikTok and YouTube to adopt the framework.

The agreement would also establish an independent research foundation focused on social media and teen well-being. Meta would share data from consenting users with the organization.

An independent auditor would assess Meta’s compliance and submit annual reports to participating states for five years.