Meta has agreed to introduce extensive protections for teenage users of Instagram and Facebook under a child-safety settlement with attorneys general from 51 US states and territories. The measures respond to allegations that major social-media firms failed to protect children and designed addictive platforms, and most must remain in place for at least a decade. The agreement affects every US state except New Mexico and Florida, while Texas has reached a separate, similar settlement.

– Teens must be offered a readily accessible non-personalised default feed within four months.
– Meta must strengthen age assurance, remove users under 13, and apply teen protections by default to unassessed new users.
– Instagram and Facebook use will be capped at two hours daily across both apps and detected alternative accounts, unless a parent disables the limit.
– Repeated scrolling prompts will appear every 15 minutes, with additional prompts after 60 and 90 minutes.
– Most access will be blocked from midnight to 6am, although messaging and account settings will remain available.
– Push notifications will be muted by default from 8am to 3pm, except for direct messages and security or safety alerts.
– Teen users will be able to switch off autoplay.