Parents should watch for default time and nighttime limits on Facebook and Instagram accounts identified as under 18, with parental consent required to lift them. Parents should also watch for tighter notifications, feed options, and age checks that change what teens see by default.
On Aug. 26, 2026, Meta agreed with 52 state and territorial attorneys general to pay up to $17.1 billion over 10 years to resolve claims that Facebook and Instagram were designed to addict youth, misled families about safety, and collected under-13 data without consent, according to the announcement from the Washington State Attorney General the Washington attorney general announcement. A consent judgment, meaning a proposed court order settling the case, would impose the reforms.
Official resources:
- Explore the official data from Wa — Use this primary source to review the underlying data.
- Read the official notice from Techxplore — Use this primary source to verify the official announcement.
Table of Contents
- Daily and nighttime limits for teen accounts
- Notifications, feeds, and appearance pressures
- Who checks compliance and where money goes
- What is not final and when changes start
Daily and nighttime limits for teen accounts
For users identified as under 18, Meta must impose a default combined two-hour daily limit across Facebook and Instagram. Meta must also impose a midnight-to-6 a.m. block on scrolling.
Parents can lift the limits with consent while messaging remains available, according to the Reuters explainer the Reuters settlement explainer. The limit is combined, so time counts across both apps rather than per app. The nighttime block targets scrolling, not all contact. Families sharing a phone or with teens near age 18 should check birthdates and account ages.
Notifications, feeds, and appearance pressures
Meta must disable most push notifications overnight and during school hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. It must also strengthen age-assurance checks, without being required to demand photo IDs or video selfies from young users, according to the Reuters age-check report the Reuters report on age checks.
For teen accounts, Meta must hide like and reaction counts by default. It must block cosmetic-surgery and extreme-makeup filters, offer an easy non-personalized, non-algorithmic feed option, and let parents set video autoplay default to off. Parents can scan for these settings once they roll out:.
- notifications quiet overnight and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- like counts hidden unless changed
- surgery and extreme-makeup filters unavailable
- simple chronological or non-personalized feed selected
- autoplay set to off
Who checks compliance and where money goes
An independent auditor with broad access to Meta systems will review implementation and results. The auditor will report directly to the attorneys general over the multi-year reform period.
Only about $12.7 billion, or 70%, is guaranteed over a decade for youth health and safety programs. The remaining roughly $5 billion is payable only if rivals including Snap, TikTok and YouTube adopt similar safeguards. Parents should not expect an individual payment from this youth-program funding described in the deal.
What is not final and when changes start
Meta denies wrongdoing and liability, the filing states the deal is not an admission, and as a proposed consent judgment it requires federal court approval to take effect. Court review means terms can change, stall, or fail.
Defaults will apply to under-18 accounts, parents can override limits and select parental controls, but some protections launch within six months and others take up to a year. Nothing changes immediately, so keep current device limits, school rules, and bedtime routines in place until the new defaults appear.
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