After reaching a massive settlement over social media addiction controversies, Meta is preparing to make major adjustments to the teen experience on Facebook and Instagram. While the $17.1 billion settlement amount has drawn considerable attention, what could truly change young users’ daily habits are a series of new measures required by the agreement.
Meta imposes strict restrictions on Facebook and Instagram after paying $17 billion settlement
The most notable change in this reform is that minor users will no longer have unlimited access. According to the agreement, Facebook and Instagram accounts of minors will have a default daily usage limit of two hours, and parental consent is required to lift the restriction. In addition, nighttime usage will also be regulated, with most push notifications restricted during late-night hours and school periods, unless parents proactively adjust the relevant settings.
Meta has also committed to further strengthening its age verification mechanisms to reduce the possibility of teenagers accessing adult features on the platform by falsifying their birthdays. In fact, Meta has gradually introduced AI technology in recent years to identify accounts suspected of belonging to minors. Going forward, the system will more actively place these accounts under youth protection mode and impose stricter security restrictions.
Beyond time management features, content safety mechanisms will also be upgraded in tandem. Meta stated that stricter controls will be implemented on sensitive content such as bullying, eating disorders, suicide, and self-harm. At the same time, certain features that may trigger appearance anxiety and social comparison will also be restricted—such as extreme beauty filters, cosmetic surgery effect filters, and public like counts—which may be de-emphasized or hidden by default. Additionally, parents will gain more comprehensive supervision tools to keep track of their children’s account activity, safety settings, and usage patterns.
10 important measures coming for teen accounts
- Daily two-hour usage limit
Facebook and Instagram will set a default daily usage limit of two hours, which can only be removed with parental consent. - Night mode
Every day from midnight to 6 a.m., some core functions will be restricted. - Campus mode
During class hours from 8 AM to 3 PM, most notifications will be automatically muted. - Rest reminder
After 15 minutes of continuous use, and after cumulative use of 60 and 90 minutes, the system will proactively remind you to take a break. - Information flow control function
Users can choose a non-algorithmically sorted feed and disable video autoplay. - Hide like counts
Like counts and emoji reactions will be hidden by default. - Filter usage restrictions
Extreme retouching, beauty, and plastic surgery effect filters will be restricted. - Stricter age verification
Enhance the ability to identify underage users and accounts with false age declarations. - further protect young people
Continue limiting exposure to harmful content and contact with suspicious adults. - Upgrade parental control tools
Provide more alert notifications and account activity information to help parents monitor their children’s usage.
The impact of this agreement may also extend beyond Meta itself. Since some settlement terms are tied to whether competing platforms adopt similar protective measures simultaneously, TikTok, YouTube, and other social media companies could face greater regulatory pressure in the future. Meta has also stated that it would only be required to pay about 30% of the compensation amount—approximately $5.3 billion—if TikTok and YouTube implement similar restrictions and each pay roughly $2.5 billion in settlements. Over the years, Meta has continuously rolled out various optional safety features, but what makes this different is that the company has, for the first time, agreed to reshape how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram through large-scale, mandatory measures. Whether these reforms will actually reduce the negative impact of social media remains to be seen.
Source: KOCPC Chinese