Meta has reached a historic settlement worth up to $18 billion to resolve a series of major lawsuits alleging that its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, contributed to youth mental health crises and screen addiction. As part of this landmark agreement, Meta is introducing a wide range of strict restrictions and safety features aimed at curbing excessive social media usage among children and teenagers.
Restrictions for Teen Users
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Default 2-Hour Daily Limit: Under-18 users will face a strict combined 2-hour daily usage cap across Facebook and Instagram. Once this threshold is reached, access can only be extended with direct parental approval.
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Overnight App Lockout: To combat sleep disruption, both platforms will enforce a "Night Mode" lockout between 12:00 AM and 6:00 AM. During these hours, teens will be blocked from browsing or posting content, including Feeds, Stories, Explore, and Reels (though direct messaging will remain accessible).
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Muted Notifications During School Hours: To help students stay focused during the school day, push notifications will be automatically silenced between 8:00 AM and 3:00 PM on weekdays.
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Regular Screen-Time Prompts: The apps will send mandatory screen-time reminders every 15 minutes of continuous scrolling, along with milestone prompts at 60 and 90 minutes of total daily use.
Content and Engagement Safeguards
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De-emphasizing Social Metrics: Like counts and reaction tallies will be hidden by default on teen accounts to reduce peer pressure and social comparison.
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Algorithmic Feed Control & Autoplay Removal: Teenagers will have the option to switch to a non-algorithmic feed, bypassing personalized recommendation engines. Autoplay features will also be turned off by default.
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Filter Restrictions: Extreme cosmetic and makeup filters will be blocked to protect young users from body image issues.
Age Verification and Parental Controls
Meta is implementing stricter AI-driven age-assurance tools to identify and remove under-13 accounts and place 13-to-17-year-olds into age-appropriate experiences. Additionally, parents will gain enhanced supervision tools, allowing them to mandate non-algorithmic feeds and enforce strict privacy configurations on their children's accounts
