Meta to cap teen use after $17.1 billion settlement with US states
What's new: the deal adds overnight blocks, school-hour notification limits and an outside auditor to monitor compliance.
Meta agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion and impose broad new limits on minors' use of Instagram and Facebook to settle a lawsuit by 50 states and territories and the District of Columbia over alleged harm to children and teens. The changes include a default two-hour daily limit for users under 18, a midnight-to-6 a.m. block on nighttime use, muted notifications overnight and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the school year, and hidden like counts. Meta also agreed to tighten age verification, limit cosmetic filters, improve harmful-content reporting and submit to oversight by an independent auditor. The company denied wrongdoing and urged TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar restrictions.