Meta has agreed to pay at least $12.1 billion and potentially as much as $17.1 billion to US states while changing how Facebook and Instagram operate for minors, under a proposed settlement announced Wednesday. The agreement, which requires court approval, resolves claims that the company designed addictive features, misrepresented platform safety and improperly collected data from children under 13.
A bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general said the deal would settle federal and state actions, including a trial that began last week in Oakland, California. The litigation grew from a 2023 multistate complaint alleging that recommendation systems, infinite scrolling and frequent notifications encouraged young users to remain online and exposed some to material involving self-harm and eating disorders. Meta has contested claims that it put profit before safety and says it has expanded protections for teenagers.
Under the proposed rules, users under 18 would face a two-hour daily limit across Facebook and Instagram, excluding messaging. Access would be blocked from midnight to 6 a.m., push notifications would stop from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and during school hours, and content would pause after 60 and 90 minutes of cumulative daily use. Reminders would also appear during sessions lasting more than 15 minutes. Parents would need to give explicit permission to disable restrictions.
The agreement also requires age-assurance measures, an option for chronological feeds drawn only from followed accounts, tighter content controls and limits on social-comparison features such as visible like counts. Teen accounts would default to stronger privacy settings, cosmetic filters would be barred for minors, and an independent auditor would evaluate implementation and effectiveness. The initial restrictions would remain for at least five years.
States would receive at least $12.1 billion over time for purposes including youth mental-health services, digital-literacy support, phone-free classroom initiatives and after-school or summer programs. A further $5 billion would become available if other large platforms reach comparable settlements and adopt stricter safeguards. That second phase would reduce the limit to 60 minutes on each Meta platform, extend the night block from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and disable push notifications for ten years.
The settlement could create a benchmark for TikTok, YouTube and other social networks, though it does not end private lawsuits or cases brought by school districts. Meta urged competitors to adopt similar protections, while advocates said nationwide and permanent standards would still require federal legislation. The immediate next step is judicial review of the consent judgment; until approval, both the payments and operating changes remain proposed rather than final.
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