Judge approves Meta settlement capping teen Facebook and Instagram use at two hours a day

A judge approved Meta's child-safety settlement on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. The agreement resolves a case brought by 47 state attorneys general. Meta must make a combined two-hour daily limit the default for teen accounts across Facebook and Instagram. It must also restrict overnight access, remove visible like counts and strengthen age checks. Most major rules are due within six months, by Feb. 27, 2027. A teen needs a parent's approval to disable the limit. Meta admitted no wrongdoing, and Texas will receive $1 billion. Ro Khanna (Rep-D California) and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said the deal falls short. Florida stayed out of the case, and Uthmeier said, "We'll see them at trial."

What the settlement's own terms leave open:

• A teen cannot turn off the two-hour limit or the midnight-to-6 a.m. block alone; a parent must approve through Meta's supervision tools, and the published summaries do not say whether that approval is one-time or recurring.
• A second account is no guaranteed bypass — Meta says it will combine usage across accounts it links to the same teen and notify parents — but the audits cover Meta's detection efforts, not their results.
• Age checks are an assurance framework, not universal ID: stronger automated estimates, optional ID or face-based verification, and deactivation of a detected under-13 account pending proof of age.