RismadarVoice Reporters, August 26, 2026
Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to a settlement with California and other US states over allegations that its social media platforms contribute to addiction and harm among children and teenagers.
Under the agreement, Meta will pay approximately $18 billion, with the funds expected to support youth online safety programmes and other priorities of participating states.
The settlement follows a lawsuit brought by attorneys general from 29 states, including California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey. The states accused Meta of designing its platforms in ways that encourage addictive use among young people and of violating federal privacy and consumer protection laws.
Meta has denied the allegations and maintained that it is not liable for the claims.
As part of the proposed settlement, Meta will introduce new restrictions and safety measures for teenage users on Facebook and Instagram.
Teen accounts will default to settings limiting combined use of the two platforms to two hours a day. Teenagers would require parental permission to disable the daily limit.
The company also agreed to introduce nighttime usage restrictions and strengthen age-verification measures aimed at preventing children from accessing its platforms or age-restricted content.
Other measures include hiding likes on teenagers’ posts by default and restricting certain extreme makeup filters.
Meta said teenage users would also have the option of selecting a non-algorithmic feed that is not personalised through its recommendation systems. They would also be able to turn off autoplay for videos.
The agreement further requires Meta to provide additional tools designed to help parents and guardians monitor and manage their children’s use of its platforms.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who led the litigation, said the settlement would make social media safer for children and families.
Bonta said Meta had agreed to significant changes intended to reduce potential risks associated with its platforms and implement them within months.
Meta’s Chief Legal Officer, C.J. Mahoney, said the agreement would give parents greater control over how their children use the company’s platforms.
The company also urged other major social media platforms, including TikTok and YouTube, to adopt similar measures, arguing that teenagers use multiple platforms and that a broader industry response was necessary.
The settlement still requires approval by a judge before it can take effect.
The agreement was announced a day after Instagram chief Adam Mosseri testified in the California case. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had also been expected to testify.
During the proceedings, the states argued that Facebook and Instagram had contributed to a wider mental health crisis among children and teenagers by encouraging prolonged and compulsive use.
Meta, however, argued that the states had focused selectively on certain features while overlooking safety measures already introduced for young users.
The company pointed to features including automatically private teen accounts, screen-time reminders, parental supervision tools and restrictions on who can contact teenagers and the type of content they can access.
The California litigation is among several legal battles Meta has faced over the alleged impact of its platforms on young users.
In March, a New Mexico jury and judge ordered Meta to pay more than $900 million after the state’s attorney general argued that the company’s platforms constituted a public nuisance.
Meta has also faced litigation in California involving claims that its platforms, alongside those of other technology companies, contributed to a young woman’s deteriorating mental health.
While some social media companies have opted to settle similar cases, Meta has continued to defend itself in court.
Meta said the latest agreement involved 52 attorneys general across the United States, making the settlement broader than the group of states directly involved in the California litigation.
