Meta to make teen safety tools default on Facebook and Instagram after California settlement
Meta has agreed to set its teenage safety features as the default on its platforms, following a California court settlement that also includes a multibillion-dollar payment.
A California-led lawsuit involving 29 states has forced Meta to restructure how its apps operate for teenagers in the United States. The settlement requires that safety options such as hiding like counts, disabling cosmetic filters, and imposing two-hour daily limits become the default for teen accounts, with any changes needing a supervising parent’s approval. Meta must also provide parents with activity reports, keyword alerts related to self-harm, and real-time notifications when teens contact adults.
Financial penalties total up to $17 billion for the participating states and an additional $1 billion to Texas, a state not originally part of the case. The agreement also bans Meta from making false statements about its safety features and mandates annual third-party verification of age-verification methods. Meta’s chief legal officer has urged rival platforms to adopt similar measures, arguing that an industry-wide approach is needed to protect young users.
Why it matters
The deal changes how millions of U.S. teens use major social networks and sets a precedent for future tech regulation.
How this story developed
- Aug 18 Meta faces federal trial over alleged child safety harms in California
- Aug 18 Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers allowed whistleblower testimony and key internal documents at the start of the trial.
- Aug 19 Former Meta safety researcher Arturo Béjar testified that he raised safety concerns with Mark Zuckerberg more than one hundred times.
- Aug 20 An eight‑person advisory jury will deliver findings to Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
- Aug 24 Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced a forthcoming bill that would prohibit children younger than 16 from using social platforms, with penalties of up to 10% of a company’s global revenue for non-compliance.
- Aug 26 Meta has agreed to a settlement worth as much as $16.7 billion with 29 state attorneys general who accused the company of designing Instagram and Facebook to be addictive for minors.
- Aug 26 Meta and the states reached a settlement, ending the trial.
- Aug 26 Meta will pay as much as $18 billion to resolve a multi-state lawsuit accusing it of harming young users and will adopt a suite of restrictions for under-18 accounts.
- Aug 26 A recent Australian study shows teen usage of banned apps rebounding despite the ban.
- Aug 26 The settlement figure was clarified to $16.7 billion and specific teen usage caps were detailed.
- Aug 26 Meta’s settlement adds mandatory usage caps and night‑time blocks for teen accounts.
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