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The company called on YouTube and TikTok to join it in setting time limits for teens.
Anna Barclay/Getty Images Meta has agreed to settle a high-profile case over children's privacy and social media addiction . The company will pay up to $18 billion and make changes to its platforms to resolve claims from dozens of states that it designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to young users and collected children's personal data. A court still needs to sign off on the proposed settlement , in which Meta denied wrongdoing.
Among other things, Meta agreed to set a default two-hour daily time limit for users aged under 18. Only a parent will be able to increase those limits. It will block apps for young users between midnight and 6AM by default (with a parent able to adjust those limits too). It has committed to provide "clear prompts and notifications to teens every 15 minutes of continuous screen time" and to remind teens when they've used its apps for cumulative totals of 60 and 90 minutes each day.
Notably, the company said it will reduce the daily time limit to one hour and expand the nighttime blackout to between 10PM and 7AM if its rivals agree to do the same. "We want to ensure teens benefit from this new industry standard, but we cannot do it alone," Meta said . "These protections will only be truly effective if we work with our peers — TikTok and YouTube — to put the same measures in place."
The company added that it will pay 70 percent of the $18 billion settlement over 10 years — the money will help fund states' online safety programs for young people. Meta said it will fork over the remaining 30 percent (around $5.3 billion) only if YouTube and TikTok match that amount between them and agree to a one-hour daily time limit for young users, a nighttime block on their apps and to employ age assurance measures.
In addition, Meta will block notifications for under 18s overnight and during school hours "except for direct messages and alerts about their account security or safety"; no longer display the number of likes or reactions on posts they see; and ban "extreme makeup filters" in addition to the existing block on cosmetic surgery filters.
Meta will give under 18s a way to view a non-algorithmic feed on Facebook and Instagram (aka posts from accounts they actually follow), and "periodically remind them" of that option. The company will let parents and guardians enable the non-algorithmic feed on their teens' accounts by default. Teens will be able to turn off autoplay, which would require them to tap or swipe on a video to play it. Again, parents can enable that setting by default.
When it comes to harmful content, Meta agreed to deploy "an enhanced mechanism" for teens to report such content. The company pledged to respond to 90 percent of those reports within six hours.
The settlement stipulates that Meta will do more to identify whether an account is used by a person aged under 18 and to remove under 13s from its platforms. The company will bring in an independent auditor to monitor these practices. Moreover, Meta "will be subject to an injunction prohibiting it from making further false, misleading or deceptive statements around its safety features," according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office .
Following a two-year investigation, Bonta and dozens of other attorneys general sued Meta in 2023 . They alleged the company "designed and deployed harmful and psychologically manipulative product features to induce young users' compulsive and extended Platform use, while falsely assuring the public that its features were safe and suitable for young users." They claimed Meta violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by knowingly collecting the personal data of children without parental consent and using that to train its generative AI and machine learning models.
The case went to trial this month. The two sides reached a settlement before Instagram chief Adam Mosseri returned to the stand on Wednesday.
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