Tech giant Meta has agreed to pay up to A$25 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms as part of a landmark legal settlement that ended a trial over teen social media addiction and settled claims filed by nearly every American state.
The settlement sought to resolve a pivotal case that had been years in the making.
It endeavoured to hold the tech giant accountable for the role its platforms played in undermining children’s mental health.
The major lawsuit accused Meta of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features that addict children to its platforms and hiding them from the public.
The case also argued that Meta violated federal laws by routinely collecting data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent.
Meta Agrees To Make Changes
As part of the settlement, the social media titan has agreed to make a number of changes to the way Instagram and Facebook operate for its youngest users.
The new safety barriers include a two-hour time limit across both platforms, which will be a default setting for known teen users.
It can only be disabled with a parent’s permission.
Direct messaging on the platforms will not count towards the daily use limit.
Push notifications will be muted between midnight and 06:00 and on school days between 08:00 and 15:00.
Measures To Prevent Bullying and Harm
Meta also committed to bring in “robust” age-assurance measures and “age-appropriate” content controls to prevent bullying and harmful material about eating disorders and self-harm.
Likes on posts and content will also be entirely hidden on the platforms for teens.
Most of these new features will be made either default or an option for teens within six months.
An independent auditor will assess how Meta is implementing the safety features and how effective they are.
Deal Will Halt An Avalanche Of Litigation
Many child health experts say it is long overdue.
The agreement “institutes real change, real transparency, real protections for children and teens across the country,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
If approved by the court, the deal will stop an avalanche of litigation by states against Meta, although the company still faces lawsuits from individuals and school districts throughout the US.
For the states, the settlement delivers money for mental-health programs for kids, including after-school or summer activities and digital literacy counsellors.
“A Coordinated Attack On Meta’s Safety Credentials”
BBC Technology editor Technically, the trial was about children’s online privacy.”
“It was based on a US law called the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which is nearly 30 years old and predates all of today’s biggest social platforms.”
“It centred around Meta’s historic gathering and use of data belonging to children under the age of 13 over a period of several years.”
“In reality, it was a co-ordinated attack on the firm’s online safety credentials.”
Deal Greeted By Cheers And Caution
“Meta, alongside other social media apps, is under fire around the world as 2026 is shaping up to be a year of reckoning for the entire industry,” continued Zoe Kleinman.
“Perhaps our days of doomscrolling are numbered.”
Child health advocates cheered the new protections, but cautioned it’s too early to celebrate.
“We cannot truly protect all children and teens until these protections are required on every platform and are permanent. That’s something only Congress can do,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project.
“This will put an end to these dangerous practices and deliver meaningful relief that will protect children from online harm,” declared Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones.
How The Payout Will Work
The settlement will be paid out over 10 years.
California will get the largest sum of at least A$2.3 billion, but several other states will still collect hundreds of millions of dollars each over the decade.
Meta said in a blog post that it was “building on our longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens.”
“Ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta,” the company said.
“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.”
There’s Conditions For Meta’s Rivals
Meta urged its corporate rivals TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar safety measures.
The company said 30% of the settlement amount — about A$7.5 billion — will be released to states ONLY if rivals YouTube and TikTok meet two conditions.
Those are implementing similar safety features, including a one-hour daily time limit, a nighttime block and age-assurance measures — and paying the same amount, split between the two companies.
Meta Vows To Strengthen Protections, If Rivals Buy In
Some of the safety measures Meta will implement, like disabling cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters, made sense regardless of whether competing platforms do the same, Meta said.
Other features, like the overnight block, will function better if they are established across the board, it added.
If industry peers sign on to the agreement, Meta will implement stronger defaults for teens’ daily time limit and the length of time for “night mode.”
Neither YouTube owner Google nor TikTok have commented.
“Payouts Are Peanuts Compared To Profits”
The A$25 billion settlement is a fraction of Meta’s 2025 revenue of more than A$300 billion.
The agreement cuts short an ongoing court case involving California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, which were among 29 states that sued Meta in 2023.
The cases in other states had been expected to go to trial later, but are now resolved.
The settlement covers 48 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and some U.S. territories.
The only two states to be excluded are New Mexico, which went to trial in its case against Meta and won earlier this year, and Florida, where the attorney general said the settlement was not tough enough on Meta.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote that the “payouts are peanuts compared to the profound harms Meta’s profit-driven addictive features inflicted on kids.”
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