Meta agreed to impose daily limits on children’s social media use and pay nearly $18 billion in settlements with nearly every US state, cutting short a trial. The settlement requires court approval. Meta faces claims it designed products to foster compulsive use by children and failed to warn of addiction risks.

Meta will impose a default two-hour daily time limit for under-18s, a block between midnight and 6 am, and a school mode muting notifications from 8 am to 3 pm. Teens will get prompts after 15 minutes of continuous use and at 60 and 90 minutes total.

The primary settlement provides up to $16.7 billion for 47 states and the District of Columbia, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico. Texas struck a separate $1 billion deal, raising total payments to nearly $18 billion.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier rejected the multi-state settlement, calling the payouts "peanuts" and a "slap on the wrist." Public Citizen said the penalty is hardly enough to force Meta to rethink its business. The Tech Oversight Project praised the settlement but urged Congress to pass permanent protections.