Meta has agreed to pay up to $17 billion over 10 years to settle claims brought by a bipartisan coalition of 47 state attorneys general, who accused the company of deliberately designing Facebook and Instagram to hook children, minimizing harms to young users, and illegally collecting data from children under 13. The settlement, announced on Aug. 26, 2026, ends a federal trial in Oakland, California, and mandates major design changes: a default two-hour daily time limit, app access blocked between midnight and 6 a.m., muted notifications during school hours, and elimination of infinite scroll and autoplay for minors. That $17 billion amounts to roughly 1% of Meta’s expected revenue over the same period. The most significant part of the deal is conditional: $5.3 billion of the $17 billion will only be released if TikTok and YouTube adopt comparable teen protections, making this strategy a lever to impose these rules across the entire sector.
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