Newswise — Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to a landmark settlement with 47 states in which it will take steps to limit the amount of time teens can spend on its platforms, and pay up to $17.1 billion in penalties. Meta is also attempting to publicly pressure other social media companies to adopt similar limits.

Virginia Tech social media expert Megan Duncan, political communications expert Cayce Myers and online digital privacy and tracking expert Donna Wertalik dove into the details of the benefits and concerns for corporations and governments, parents and teens.

Megan Duncan on the effectiveness of the new safety features

“More than the money, which was far below the ceiling of what the plaintiffs were asking for, the agreement’s safety and security features are the most striking. These features, like daily time limits and removing image filters that mimic cosmetic surgery, are what advocates have requested for some time. They address key concerns of parents about the effects on children and youth, including body image, doomscrolling, and bullying,” Duncan said.

“Many of these features are set to be automatic, bypassed only with express parental permission. But don’t discount the ability of teens to find creative ways around these features or to remake social media culture and etiquette to adapt. For example, one feature would ban displaying metrics for likes on a post to users under 18. Teens — and adults — put value on that metric because it’s an affordance provided by the platform. I expect that the culture will change to put value on a different metric that’s visible to the audience. Teens like to feel popular!” she said.

“This settlement also sets up a pressure campaign to get TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar measures. A federal, industry-wide requirement for children and youth safety features would be more effective at changing social media culture for teens than a system that singles out just a few apps, effectively driving those users to other apps,” Duncan said.

Cayce Myers on the legal and political repercussions

“By agreeing to a settlement, Meta chose the best strategic option given the onslaught of multiple cases surrounding mental health allegations involving users under the age of 18 years old. While this may pause the growing number of lawsuits against the company, the real impact of the settlement is a massive shift in design, which is the end of unchecked engagement for younger users. This includes daily time limits, blocks during nighttime and school hours, filter blocks, and changes to how personalized a feed can be. Meta’s changes will also be assessed by an independent auditor.  The long-term impact will be a Meta experience for under 18 years old will look dramatically different than what it is today,” Myers said.

“That user group represents a core customer group for advertising, which is a foundational aspect of Meta’s business model. However, the growing number of lawsuits presents both public relations and financial impact as Meta has spent an increasingly large amount on legal fees in 2025 and 2026 while facing heightened public backlash over the impact of its platform on younger users. Within the United States, the scrutiny of social media impact on youth mental health has been the focus of both Republican and Democratic Attorney Generals. Lawmakers, particularly at the state level in the U.S. and in the European Union, will likely continue to push for more restrictive guardrails on social media use,” he said.

Donna Wertalik on who is really protected and how effective the changes will be

“Meta agreed to a two-hour cap shared across Facebook and Instagram, a midnight to 6 a.m. lockout, most push notifications off from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., stronger age assurance, an option to turn off personalized recommendations, and 90% of teen safety reports answered within six hours. The school-hours notification curfew is the one to watch! It’s a direct hit to re-engagement and how this will impact long term. But all of it depends on knowing which users are minors, and that’s where the privacy bill comes due. ‘Privacy by design’ should be built-in but rarely is with development of social media apps,” Wertalik said.

“The caveat? The agreement still lets Meta define what counts as harmful to minors. A company grading its own homework isn’t providing neutral oversight,” she said.

“Also, kids will easily be able to find workarounds for the new limits. Enforcement then pushes Meta toward ID uploads and facial age estimation, and that’s the trade nobody’s naming. We protect children by collecting more sensitive data about children,” Wertalik said.

“Much also depends on the voluntary cooperation of Meta’s rival corporations. The two-hour cap Meta agreed to run five years. Only if Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube sign comparable terms does it tighten to a 60-minute cap and extend to 10 years. That’s a floor with an expiration date, not a standard. To apply pressure, Meta took out full-page ads in national newspapers calling these settings the ‘new industry standard.’ That’s a competitor-disadvantaging campaign wearing a child-safety jersey. Arguably, effective marketing, but whether these restrictions become an industry floor depends on whether TikTok and YouTube would rather pay than match,” she said.

“Still, this is a monumental moment in privacy and online tracking. Generation Alpha will view this as losing privileges. But Generation Beta is who this is about. Born last year, they’ll never know a feed without a curfew, and defaults set before you arrive don’t feel like rules. They feel like weather constant changes. That’s the most durable thing here, but only if the caps remain in place. We’ve written a protection for a generation too young to benefit from it,” she said.

About Duncan

Megan Duncan is an associate professor in the School of Communication. Her research focuses on how partisans judge the credibility of and engage with the news. Using survey-embedded experiments, surveys, and other quantitative methods, she’s interested in knowing more about audiences, their perceptions of the news, how they form opinions, and how to use this knowledge to make democracy stronger.

About Myers

Cayce Myers is the director of graduate studies and professor at the School of Communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. His work focuses on legal issues affecting communication practice and he has recently published on issues related to social media liability and artificial intelligence regulation. He specializes in media history, political communication, and laws that affect public relations practice.

About Wertalik

Donna Wertalik is a professor of practice in marketing at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business,  where she has led brand strategy and serves as the faculty founder of PRISM, the college’s award-winning faculty led, student-run marketing agency. With three decades of industry experience at companies including Nestlé and Ogilvy, and as co-founder of the Voices of Privacy initiative, she is a nationally recognized voice in digital marketing, consumer behavior, and online privacy. She is the 2025 recipient of the Michael O’Hara Leadership Award from the Direct Marketing Association of Washington.

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