Meta has agreed to a sweeping settlement with 48 US states that will impose new restrictions on how teenagers use Instagram and Facebook. The deal, approved on Wednesday by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, includes a two-hour daily limit, a midnight-to-6am blackout, and hidden like counts for users under 18. The company will pay nearly $18bn (€15.4bn) over a decade, one of the largest child safety settlements in US history.
While the measures apply only in the United States, they carry significance far beyond it. European regulators, who have been tightening their own rules on online safety under the Digital Services Act, will be watching closely. The settlement shows that platforms can be forced to change default settings, not just offer optional tools.
What changes for teens
Under the agreement, Instagram and Facebook will automatically enforce a two-hour daily usage limit for users under 18. Parents can override it, but the default is strict. Between midnight and 6am, accounts will be locked entirely. Like counts will be hidden by default, and age-verification technology will be strengthened, using a combination of Meta's own tools and third-party systems. Independent audits will measure how well these systems work, with specific targets for false positives—cases where minors are wrongly identified as adults.
Meta says the safeguards are the most extensive it has ever introduced for young users. But critics argue that the settlement leaves too much room for the company to define what constitutes harm. Arturo Béjar, a former Meta engineering director who testified in the federal trial that the settlement cut short, called the agreement a "significant milestone" but warned parents not to assume Instagram is now safe for children.
"The agreement has a big problem in that it allows Meta to define harm," Béjar said. "It's one thing to say, 'Yeah, you only get like two hours of alcohol or two hours of cigarettes a day,' but it's still as bad for you because of what's getting delivered."
Béjar, who has long argued that Meta's recommendation algorithms can be addictive, said teenagers who hit the two-hour limit could still feel pressure to keep scrolling because of how the platform is designed. He wants Meta to address the effect of content recommendations on teenagers, not just the time they spend on the app.
Defaults matter
One of the key criticisms of Meta's past safety features is that many required users to switch them on manually. Under the settlement, several will be enabled by default, including the two-hour limit and the overnight block. Other features, such as turning off video autoplay or displaying posts in chronological order, will remain opt-in.
Josh Golin, executive director of the online safety group Fairplay, said the settlement leaned too heavily on giving parents tools rather than restricting harmful features outright. "We are disappointed that the settlement does not turn off by default recommendation algorithms that connect kids to predators and send young people down dangerous rabbit holes," Golin said.
During the trial, a lawyer representing the states pressed Instagram head Adam Mosseri on the low take-up among teenagers of the app's "take a break" feature, which prompts users to pause after extended scrolling. Few teenagers used it when it first launched, though Meta made it a default setting for teen accounts after introducing them in 2024. Users can still swipe away the notification if they choose not to take a break.
European parallels
The settlement comes as European policymakers debate similar measures. The EU's Digital Services Act already requires platforms to assess and mitigate risks to minors, and the European Commission has been pushing for stronger age verification and default safety settings. Some member states, such as France and Germany, have introduced their own national rules. The US deal could serve as a reference point for what is technically feasible.
Yaël Eisenstat, director of policy and impact at the Cybersafety Research Center, which recently audited safety tools across Meta and other platforms and found most fell short, said the settlement was a significant step. "It is a little premature, unfortunately, to tell if exactly all the changes we want to see are going to happen," she said. Eisenstat, who previously worked at Facebook before leaving in 2019, said Meta had "decided to go against the advice of some of their own internal employees and continue to ignore the fact that these design features were unsafe in search of profit."
She said the measures announced this week showed there were technically feasible options for making the platform safer—something whistleblowers had "been saying very loudly" for years. Fixing the problem, she added, would require a mix of technical solutions, market pressure, and government regulation. "There's no singular silver bullet for fixing all of this," she said. "I'm just glad that at least we are catching up a little bit now."
The settlement covers the District of Columbia and US territories. Two states were not included: New Mexico, which won a separate case against Meta, and Florida, whose attorney general said the settlement's terms were not tough enough. Meta said adults could also adopt individual versions of the new controls, such as daily time-limit reminders, but would not be able to opt into the full settings designed for teenage users.
For European readers, the deal is a reminder that the debate over teen safety online is far from over. As the EU moves forward with its own digital rules, the question of how to balance protection with freedom—and how to hold platforms accountable—remains central. The US settlement may not be a perfect template, but it shows that change is possible when regulators and the public push hard enough.
