An Update on the Harms of Social Media on Teen Mental Health: Meta Settles for $18 Billion

Meta and a bipartisan group of 52 attorneys general have reached a proposed settlement over allegations that Meta misled the public about features within Instagram and Facebook that may be harmful to the mental health of children and adolescents. The settlement, though still subject to court approval, will require Meta to pay up to $18 billion to the lawsuit participants over the course of 10 years. Additionally, Meta will have to enact new protections for users, such as stronger parental controls.¹

“Today, we have secured a settlement with Meta that will make social media less dangerous for our kids and make a world of difference for children and their families,” shared California Attorney General Rob Bonta.²

The attorneys general claimed that Instagram and Facebook were crafted to drive compulsive use among children and adolescents, harming them physically and mentally, and that Meta intentionally misled the public about these risks.

“The framework we’ve negotiated will empower parents to easily manage how their children access our platforms,” said CJ Mahoney, the chief legal officer at Meta.¹

The New Protections for Youth

Upon the judge’s approval of the agreement, the following protections and controls will automatically apply to anyone under the age of 18 on Instagram and Facebook in participating US states and territories. Most of the terms are required to remain in place for 10 years.

Moving forward, the protections will include:

• Time limits: Meta will implement a default 2-hour daily time limit that teens can only turn off with a parent’s permission. This limit is cumulative across Facebook and Instagram, and time spent scrolling on both apps counts toward the total, including if the teen has multiple accounts.
• Night mode: Meta will implement a default block from apps between midnight and 6 AM. Teens will not be able to post or view their Feed, Stories, Explore, or Reels, during those hours.
• School mode: Notifications will be muted by default between 8 AM and 3 PM. During those hours, teens will no longer receive push notifications, except for direct messages and alerts about their account security or safety.
• Regular usage prompts: Teens will receive prompts after 15 minutes of continuous screen time on Facebook or Instagram. They will also receive prompts when their total daily usage hits both 60 minutes and 90 minutes. These prompts are designed to encourage “intentional use.”
• Algorithmic control: Teens will be able to choose a nonalgorithmic feed, or one that is not personalized by Meta’s recommendation systems, as their default.
• Disabled autoplay: Teens will be able to turn off autoplay, so that content no longer automatically plays one after the next. Instead, they will need to deliberately tap or swipe to see more. Parents can choose to adjust their teen’s default experience to require this setting.
• Hidden likes: Teens will not see the number of likes and reactions on posts—both their own and those from others.
• Disabled filters: Teens will be unable to use extreme makeup filters, in addition to the pre-existing block on teens using cosmetic surgery filters.
• Age assurance measures: Meta will invest in stronger technology to catch accounts that may belong to individuals under the age of 13, and to identify accounts that may be between the ages of 13 and 17, to ensure those accounts are placed in experiences designed for teens.
• Age-appropriate restrictions: By default, teens are placed into 13+ content settings, which are inspired by movie ratings criteria and parent feedback. This means teens are prevented from following or interacting with accounts that are age-inappropriate.
• Restricting unwanted contact from strangers: Teens will continue to be defaulted into private accounts on Instagram and private default settings on Facebook, which restricts potentially suspicious adults from contacting them. Meta claims it will also strengthen efforts to prevent adults from finding, following, and interacting with teens.
• Reporting harmful content: Meta promises to give teens easy ways to report content that concerns them, and will work to improve response times to those reports.
• Stronger parental controls: Parents can set up supervision tools with new controls and insights, such as a notification when a teen links a secondary account, or alerts on interactions with potentially suspicious accounts, along with providing periodic updates on their teen’s usage and any attempts to change their protective settings.

“Ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta. We want to get this right for parents and teens, and that’s why we partnered with state attorneys general to set a new industry standard,” Meta said in their statement on these new protections.¹

Along with creating and improving these safety and supervision features, Meta will hire an independent auditor to review accumulated information and resources, and then report to the attorneys general, for the next 5 years.

A Call to YouTube and TikTok

Meta will initially distribute approximately $12.7 billion to the participants in the lawsuit with annual payments over 10 years. The remaining $5.3 billion? It will only be released if YouTube and TikTok follow suit.

Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution. We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework right away,” said Mahoney. “But its success depends on all other social media platforms following Meta’s lead.”¹

If YouTube and TikTok also impose daily limits of an hour each and similar night mode and age restriction features, in addition to paying approximately $5.3 billion each to the plaintiffs, Meta will pay the remaining approximately $5.3 billion of its own settlement.

This portion of the agreement is designed to drive industry-wide adoption, ensuring teens will receive consistent protections across the apps they use, including YouTube and TikTok.

Continued Oversight and Additional Terms

Meta also intends to share data with an independent social media research foundation to get a better understanding of how it can support young users.

There is also an injunction that will prohibit Meta from making additional false, misleading, or deceptive statements about the safety features in its products.

References

1. Our agreement with bipartisan attorneys general: calling on TikTok and YouTube to join us in supporting teens. Meta. August 26, 2026. Accessed August 28, 2026. https://about.fb.com/news/2026/08/agreement-with-state-attorneys-general-supporting-teens/

2. Gawel R, Grasso GM. Meta settles for $17 billion over teen social media use, will implement safety features. August 27, 2026. Accessed August 28, 2026. https://www.healio.com/news/psychiatry/20260827/meta-settles-for-17-billion-over-teen-social-media-use-will-implement-safety-features