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Proposed $18 Billion Meta Settlement Gives Families More Control Over Teens’ Social Media Use

New rules would add time limits, overnight blocks and stronger parental controls on Instagram and Facebook

Edward C. Baig and Donna Freydkin,

Updated August 26, 2026

AARP

Updated August 26, 2026

a photo shows a teenage boy looking at a smartphone screen

New rules proposed for Instagram and Facebook could help parents and grandparents better manage teens’ screen time and online safety.

Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Key takeaways

Meta’s settlement would impose a combined daily limit of two hours on Instagram and Facebook for users under 18.
Parents would have to approve changes to default time limits and overnight blocks.
The agreement also calls for school-hour notification blocks, stronger age checks and independent oversight.

Parents, grandparents and caregivers could soon get stronger tools to limit how much screen time teens spend on Instagram and Facebook.

Under a proposed settlement with parent company Meta, users under 18 would face default daily time limits, overnight blocks and restrictions on notifications.

Parents could change some of those settings. The settlement, announced Aug. 26, still needs court approval. If approved, Meta would pay up to about $18 billion to the states over 10 years.

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

For caregivers and grandparents, the biggest change is simple: more control over when teens can use Instagram and Facebook and how long they can stay on them.

Meta would set a combined two-hour daily limit across Instagram and Facebook for users under 18. A parent could lift it. Meta would also have to interrupt extended use with mandatory “productive pauses” after 15 minutes of continuous use and again at 60 and 90 minutes. The apps would also be blocked from midnight to 6 a.m. by default. Notifications would be shut off from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and during the school day, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. between Aug. 15 and June 15.

“The focus of this case was to protect our kids, stopping notifications and alerts at night and when they are in school, encouraging them to take breaks from social media, protecting them against harmful features, implementing age assurance technology and more,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said, announcing the settlement.

The settlement also calls for stronger, more user-friendly parental controls, though the attorneys general have not spelled out every feature those tools will include.

Those changes grew out of a 2023 lawsuit filed by California and other state attorneys general. They alleged that Meta designed Instagram and Facebook features to encourage excessive or compulsive use among children and teens while misleading families about the risks. They also accused the company of illegally collecting and using data from children under 13.

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The settlement goes beyond screen-time limits.

Meta would stop showing users under 18 the number of likes or reactions on posts. Image filters for cosmetic procedures would be banned for teens. Young users would also have the option of a nonpersonalized feed instead of one shaped by Meta’s recommendation algorithm.

The agreement calls for stronger safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders and content related to suicide and self-harm. Teens would also get a more effective way to report potentially harmful content, and Meta would have to respond to 90 percent of those reports within six hours. The company would have to improve age checks to identify users under 18 and identify and remove children under 13 from its platforms.

Meta would not be left to police itself. An independent auditor and the settling states would regularly assess whether the required safety features were put in place and whether they were working.

The two-hour daily limit would remain in effect for five years. If Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube agree to comparable terms, the limit would drop to 60 minutes on each platform for 10 years.

This story, originally published June 2, 2026, has been updated with details about the Meta social media settlement.

The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.     

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