SECURITY2-Hour Daily App Limits Set in Meta $18 Billion Settlement

Teens Face 2-Hour Screen Cap as Meta Agrees to $18 Billion Settlement

Meta Platforms has agreed to an $18 billion court settlement with 48 US states, forcing default two-hour daily time limits and midnight app blackouts for users under 18 on Instagram and Facebook.

The historic agreement resolves widespread litigation accusing the company of creating a public nuisance and failing to protect minors from platform harms. Paid out over a decade, the $18 billion payout comes alongside binding operational mandates that overhaul how the social media giant verifies age and manages underage accounts.

Platform impact across age groups

The regulatory mandates impose distinct operational rules based on user age, moving several long-contested safety features from optional tools to compulsory defaults.

• Users under 13: Strictly barred from creating accounts under federal privacy law and company policy. Under the settlement, when a user under 13 is detected and removed, Meta must automatically audit the ages of users on that account’s friend list.
• Teens aged 13 to 17: Automatically locked into restricted accounts featuring a hard two-hour daily limit, a nightly access block between midnight and 6:00 AM, and hidden public “like” counts. The daily limit and night block can only be turned off with explicit parent permission.
• Adult users over 18: Granted access to individual time-management features, such as voluntary daily reminders, but blocked from opting into the full teen safety configuration.

Systemic age checks and algorithmic controls

To enforce the limits, Meta must overhaul its age-detection infrastructure using a combination of proprietary technology and third-party tools. The system will be subjected to regular independent audits and measured against explicit target thresholds for false positives, specifically instances where minors are incorrectly classified as adults over 18.

Former Meta engineering director Arturo Bejar, who testified during the federal trial that preceded the deal, called the settlement a significant milestone but cautioned that it leaves content recommendations largely untouched. While daily limits and night blackouts will deploy by default, other controls, including disabling video autoplay and switching feeds to chronological order instead of algorithmic recommendations, remain optional opt-in choices for young users.

Josh Golin, executive director of online safety non-profit Fairplay, criticized the reliance on parental management tools, arguing that harmful recommendation features should have been disabled across the board.