Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion (£14bn) and overhaul how Facebook and Instagram operate for teenagers, settling a lawsuit brought by dozens of US states over allegations that it designed its platforms to be addictive to young users and improperly collected children's data. The proposed settlement, which still requires court approval, resolves a case that went to trial this month and was reached before Instagram chief Adam Mosseri was due back on the witness stand. Meta denies any wrongdoing but has pledged a series of changes and urged rivals TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar measures.

Under the deal, under-18s will get a default two-hour daily time limit, an overnight app block between midnight and 6am, and periodic screen-time reminders, with parents able to adjust these settings. Meta says it will tighten limits further, to one hour a day and a 10pm-7am blackout, if TikTok and YouTube match its commitments; it will pay 70% of the $18 billion over ten years regardless, with the remaining roughly $5.3 billion contingent on rivals joining in. Other changes include hiding like counts, banning extreme makeup filters, offering a non-algorithmic feed option, allowing autoplay to be switched off, faster responses to harmful content reports, stronger under-13 detection and removal, and independent auditing, following a 2023 lawsuit alleging violations of children's online privacy law.