Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle claims from 29 U.S. states that Instagram and Facebook harmed children. The agreement was reached on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, inside the courtroom of Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the case in California.
The lawsuit was filed in 2023, accusing Meta of violating federal and state privacy laws and of building products that fostered addiction in young users. Meta has not admitted wrongdoing.
Of the total settlement, 51 states and territories, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands, agreed to a combined $17.1 billion payment. Texas negotiated a separate deal worth about $1 billion, according to its attorney general.
Two states did not join. Florida’s attorney general called the deal “peanuts” in a post on X. New Mexico chose to continue litigating rather than settle; Meta said the state “chose the litigation path rather than working with us.”
Meta reported revenue of $61 billion for the April to June quarter this year. Its share price rose after the settlement was announced.
According to the settlement terms, Meta will introduce a default daily time limit of 2 hours for users under 18 on Instagram and Facebook. Under-18 accounts will also see prompts to pause after 15 minutes of continuous use, and again at 60 and 90 minutes.
Other changes include:
- A nighttime block restricting access from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
- No push notifications for under-18 users from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on school days
- Stronger systems to verify the age of young users
- Tighter content controls around bullying, eating disorders, and self-harm
- Restrictions on features linked to poor mental health outcomes, including beauty filters and visible like counts
- Expanded parental controls
- Independent auditing of whether the measures work as intended
Most changes are set to remain in place for 10 years. However, 30% of the settlement amount and the effectiveness of some measures, such as the two-hour limit, depend on TikTok and YouTube adopting similar rules. Without that, some protections would run for five years instead of ten.
Meta said in a statement that the agreement builds on its “longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens,” and called on TikTok and YouTube to adopt the same measures.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta held a press conference Wednesday afternoon in Oakland. He described the settlement as a “watershed moment” for protecting children’s mental health online.
Bonta said California could receive between $1.1 billion and $2.1 billion of the total settlement, to be used for preventing and addressing mental health harms linked to social media use among young people.
Asked whether the states gave up ground to reach the deal, Bonta said, “I don’t think we compromised on anything here.” He added that the states achieved the same result they expected from continuing the trial.
Bonta also said his office will now turn more attention to a separate 2024 lawsuit against TikTok, and named Snapchat and YouTube as companies he wants to see adopt similar rules. “We will be focused on the rest of the industry,” he said.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers indicated she is likely to approve the settlement, saying, “My inclination is to grant it.” She noted she had only received the final terms early that morning and would need time to review them fully. The trial has been suspended in the meantime.
Kelly Stonelake, a former Meta executive turned whistleblower, wrote on her blog Overturned that the settlement shows Meta knew changes were necessary long before the lawsuit forced its hand. She wrote that Meta “spent years insisting” its products were safe.
Public reaction on social media has been mixed and often skeptical. Some commenters questioned whether settlement funds will reach affected families rather than state-run programs. Others argued the two-hour limit is still too generous given what is known about the platforms’ design, with some directing criticism at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally. Several commenters said the more direct solution would be to bar children from these platforms altogether or raise the minimum age for use.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers has not yet formally approved the settlement. YouTube and TikTok had not responded publicly to Meta’s call for matching safety measures as of Wednesday evening. TikTok reached its own $400 million settlement over child safety claims the week before, without adopting the behavioral commitments Meta agreed to.
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Meta has also called on Apple and Google to provide “verified age information” from their app stores, arguing that age checks should happen at the app store level rather than solely on individual platforms. The company made a similar request three years ago. Apple and Google have already introduced age-check systems in the United Kingdom.
Whether the settlement’s full terms take effect, and how much of the money is contingent on rival platforms, will depend on how TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat respond in the coming months.
