Meta agrees to teen safeguards and up to $17 billion settlement with US states
Meta has agreed to nationwide safeguards for teenage Facebook and Instagram users and payments of up to $17 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by California and 28 other US states.
In short
- Meta has agreed to nationwide safeguards for teenage Facebook and Instagram users and payments of up to $17 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by California and 28 other US states.
Meta has agreed to introduce new safeguards for teenage users of Facebook and Instagram and pay up to $17 billion under a settlement ending a landmark US lawsuit over alleged harm to children.
The agreement, reached on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, ended a federal jury trial in Oakland, California, that had begun the previous week. California and 28 other states accused Meta of designing products that encouraged compulsive use among young people and of collecting data from children under 13 without parental permission.
The planned protections include daily usage limits, restrictions on notifications during school hours and blocks on access during key overnight hours. Plastic-surgery filters would also be barred for teenage users. One reported provision would set a two-hour daily limit that could be disabled only with parental permission.
Payments would be distributed among the participating states over 10 years, subject to court approval. California is expected to receive between $1.5 billion and $2.1 billion, while Colorado would receive about $615 million.
Meta denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement. The company said the framework should be adopted across the industry because teenagers use many different apps, and it called on TikTok, Snap and YouTube to implement similar measures.
The agreement does not resolve every legal challenge facing major social-media platforms. Meta and other companies continue to face lawsuits brought by families, school districts, individuals and state attorneys general over alleged harm to young users.
