Meta's $18B Settlement: New Child Safety Rules, But Critics Question Impact
Meta agrees to $18B settlement with US states, adding teen time limits and age checks, but critics say it's not enough.
Meta Platforms has agreed to a landmark $18 billion settlement with 48 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and territories, introducing a suite of new child safety measures on Instagram and Facebook. The deal, announced Wednesday, requires the company to enforce stricter age verification, limit daily usage for minors, and block access during late-night hours.
Under the proposed settlement, users under 18 will face a hard two-hour daily limit, with a default block on app use between midnight and 6 a.m. Parents can override these restrictions. Meta will also hide "like" counts for teens and strengthen its age-estimation technology, using both internal and third-party tools, with regular outside audits to ensure accuracy. The agreement sets specific goals for reducing false positives—where minors are incorrectly identified as adults—and requires Meta to check the ages of friends when a user is removed for being under 13.
While the measures go further than any previous Meta commitment, critics and child safety advocates caution that the settlement is not a complete solution. Arturo Béjar, a former Meta engineering director who testified in the federal trial that was cut short by the settlement, called the deal a "significant milestone" but warned that parents should not view Instagram as suddenly safe. He noted that the agreement allows Meta to define what constitutes harm, and that content recommendation algorithms, which can be addictive, remain largely unaddressed.
Josh Golin, executive director of the online safety nonprofit Fairplay, expressed disappointment that the settlement does not turn off recommendation algorithms by default for teens, which he says can connect young users to predators and lead them down dangerous paths. Some researchers have found that many past Meta safety features are ineffective or underused. Yaël Eisenstat, director of policy and impact at the Cybersafety Research Center, said it is premature to know if all desired changes will occur, but she called the settlement monumental in showing that safer design options are technically feasible.
The settlement includes both default-on safeguards, like the time limit and night mode, and opt-in features, such as turning off video autoplay or viewing posts in chronological order. Meta said adults can also adopt some of these controls individually, but there is no option for them to opt into the full teen experience settings.
The agreement still requires approval from a judge. Meta has long required users to be at least 13, in line with federal child privacy law, but critics have faulted the company for not doing enough to enforce it. The settlement aims to change that with measurable goals and independent testing.