Meta settlement tightens Facebook and Instagram rules for US teens

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to pay up to about US$18 billion, or around THB630 billion, over 10 years to settle a case in which 29 US states alleged that the company designed its platforms to keep children and teenagers using them continuously, leading to addiction and harm to their mental health.

In addition to the payment, the settlement requires Meta to change how Facebook and Instagram operate for US users aged 13-17.

Their combined use will be limited to two hours a day, access will be blocked overnight by default, notifications will be reduced during school hours, like and reaction counts will be hidden, and age-verification measures will be strengthened.

The settlement was announced on Wednesday (August 26, 2026), only a few days after the trial began in a federal court in Oakland, California.

The proceedings had been expected to last several weeks, and Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was on the witness list, but the trial ended before he gave evidence.

The development comes as several countries review the rules governing children and teenagers online.

Thailand is among them and is studying the possibility of restricting children’s use of social media.

On Sunday (June 21, 2026), Deputy Prime Minister Songsak Thongsri, in his capacity as chair of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation board, discussed a study into the feasibility and effects of measures to regulate social media use by children and young people.

Setting a minimum age of 16 was among the options under consideration.

Facebook and Instagram use capped at two hours a day

The case was jointly brought by 29 US states, which alleged that Meta deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to keep children and teenagers engaged.

They cited features including infinitely scrolling feeds, content-recommendation algorithms and continual notifications, which the states said kept users on the platforms for longer.

The states also alleged that Meta collected personal information from children under 13 without parental consent, an issue involving the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Meta denied all the allegations, and the settlement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing.

One measure in the settlement limits the combined use of Facebook and Instagram by users aged 13-17 to no more than two hours a day.

The restriction will be the default for teenage accounts, and parents will be able to change it.

Time spent using direct messages will not count towards the two-hour limit.

Facebook and Instagram will be unavailable to teenagers by default from midnight to 6am, although parents will be able to permit access during those hours.

Meta will scale back most notifications for teenagers during school hours, from 8am to 3pm on school days, to prevent social-media alerts from causing disruption.

The system will also notify teenagers whenever they have used Facebook or Instagram continuously for 15 minutes, encouraging them to take a break or consider whether to continue.

Meta will also hide by default the numbers of likes and reactions received by teenagers’ posts and bar minors from using extreme make-up filters.

Teenagers will be able to turn off autoplay and choose a feed that is not ordered by an algorithmic recommendation system.

Most measures will take effect within six months.

An age-verification system intended to identify users who give an inaccurate age will take up to about one year to develop.

Meta also agreed to allow an independent auditor to examine whether it is complying with the settlement.

What US states allege against Meta

Some of the allegations in the case concern COPPA, a US law requiring companies to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13.

The 29 states alleged that Meta collected such information without parental consent and used it to train generative AI systems.

Four states, namely California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, also alleged that Meta violated their consumer-protection laws by designing Facebook and Instagram to appeal to children and keep them using the platforms.

The states cited features such as endlessly scrolling feeds, content recommendations and notifications, which they alleged helped keep users on the platforms for longer.

Meta previously said that, if penalties were calculated at the maximum statutory rate, the case could result in fines of up to US$1.4 trillion.

Its calculation was based on the number of children who used its platforms for more than 30 minutes a day over 12 years.

The US$1.4 trillion figure represented a maximum-penalty scenario, not an amount ordered by the court.

Before the case was settled, potential damages if Meta lost were estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars.

The present settlement sets a maximum payment of about US$18 billion.

Funds to be distributed among states

Meta agreed to pay up to about US$16.7 billion to 47 participating jurisdictions, including Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Part of the money will be paid in instalments over 10 years.

Meta has guaranteed about US$12.7 billion, while a further approximately US$5 billion will be paid only if Snap, the owner of Snapchat, ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, and Alphabet, the owner of YouTube, introduce similar measures to protect children.

States will use the money in different ways.

Some will place it in their general funds, while others will reserve a portion for children’s mental-health programmes.

California may receive about US$2.2 billion and New York about US$1.1 billion.

Texas has a separate settlement with Meta worth more than US$1 billion.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the case, approved the main settlement on Wednesday (August 26, 2026).

She described it as “a good step forward” and told lawyers for both sides, “I am quite pleased that we do not have to take this trial through to the end.”

Former Meta employee testifies before case ends

Before the case ended, the court heard evidence from Arturo Béjar, a former Instagram safety engineer who later became a company whistleblower.

Béjar said Meta had adopted what he called a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to child-safety problems on its platforms.

He said he had alerted executives to problems experienced by children using Instagram, but they were not addressed as he had expected.

“Meta’s senior executives were aware of the problems affecting children, yet continued to tell the public that the platforms were safe,” Béjar told the court.

Zuckerberg was on the witness list but did not give evidence because the case ended first.

Internal company documents were also used in the case.

They indicated that safety features requiring users to opt in generally had low uptake, yet Meta continued to launch some features without enabling them by default.

A former executive was also questioned about a statement in an internal document saying that, in some instances, Meta might choose to pay penalties for violating rules rather than change its products.

Other cases against Meta continue

The settlement between Meta and the states does not end all litigation over social media’s effects on children.

Meta and other companies, including Google, TikTok and Snapchat, still face hundreds to thousands of cases in US courts brought by individuals, families, schools and government agencies.

In March 2026, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google negligent in their platform design and ordered the two companies to pay a total of US$6 million to a 20-year-old woman who said she had become addicted to Instagram and YouTube as a child.

Meta and Google said they would appeal the verdict.

In New Mexico, Meta was also ordered to pay US$567 million in August 2026 in a child-protection case, in addition to US$375 million that a jury ordered the company to pay in the same case in March.

The New Mexico case was not included in the settlement announced on Wednesday (August 26, 2026).

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said Meta’s agreement with other states did not cover some of the measures pursued in his state’s case, such as preventing adults from attempting to gain access to children and banning sexual conversations between children and AI chatbots.

He said the agreement “demonstrates real progress and gives us further momentum to complete our work to protect children online”.

Florida did not join the settlement and is preparing to continue its case.

The state’s attorney general said, “The money being paid to the states is mere pocket change compared with the harm that Meta’s profit-driven features, designed to create addiction, have inflicted on our children. We will see you in court.”

Meta calls for the same measures on TikTok, Snap and YouTube

Meta said the new measures would apply to teenage users in the United States and called on TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube to adopt similar protections because teenagers could move to other platforms.

Meta chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney said, “Because teenagers move between dozens of apps, an industry-wide solution is needed. We are therefore calling on TikTok, Snap and YouTube to adopt this new framework immediately.”

How countries are regulating children’s social media use

The settlement between Meta and the US states comes as several countries review how much access children and teenagers should have to social media and what responsibility platforms should bear for the safety of younger users.

Their approaches differ, ranging from age limits and compulsory age checks to requirements that companies change features that may keep children online for too long.

Australia has adopted a strict approach, requiring social-media platforms covered by its law to prevent children under 16 from holding accounts.

Platforms that fail to meet this obligation may face financial penalties, making Australia one of the countries with a clear age threshold for social-media use.

The platforms covered include Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, X, Reddit and other services meeting criteria set by the eSafety regulator.

Companies that fail to fulfil their obligations may be fined up to A$54.6 million by a court.

The European Union has not adopted an Australia-style ban on social-media use by children under 16.

Instead, it regulates large platforms, focusing on the assessment and reduction of risks their services may pose to children and other users.

In July 2026, the European Commission said Meta could face penalties if it did not change certain features, after a preliminary assessment found that Facebook and Instagram might not comply with European Union requirements for handling harmful content on large online platforms.

The Commission was still discussing possible changes with Meta.

Thailand is also considering restrictions on children’s social-media use.

On Sunday (June 21, 2026), Deputy Prime Minister and Thai Health Promotion Foundation board chair Songsak Thongsri proposed that Thailand study legislation restricting social-media use by children under 16, amid concerns about rising screen time.

Data cited by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation indicated that Thais spent an average of almost eight hours online each day, while 72.6% of children aged 0-2 had more than one hour of screen time a day.

Experts warned that screen use at that age might be linked to learning, communication and other aspects of development.

Beyond the amount of time spent online, the Thai Health Promotion Foundation said children and young people faced risks including cyberbullying, sexual exploitation, online gambling, and advertising or content encouraging risky behaviour such as e-cigarette use.

Thailand’s approach remains at the stage of studying and considering legislation; it is not yet law.

The Thai Health Promotion Foundation said it was examining measures in other countries, particularly Australia, and working with the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society to strengthen online protection for children, promote digital literacy and develop a system for reporting harmful content.

From the US perspective, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said, “What we secured through this settlement is highly significant and goes beyond anything a court has ordered, or would be likely to order.”

He added, “The goal of this case is to protect our children.”

North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson said settling the case would bring safety changes to the platforms sooner.

Continuing the litigation could mean waiting several more years for improvements, during which another generation of children could face risks, he said.

Source: Bangkokbiznews