Teenagers using Facebook and Instagram in participating US states and territories will face a new default daily limit of two hours across both platforms combined under an agreement between Meta and a coalition of state attorneys general.
The limit is part of a much larger set of changes announced in August 2026. Meta will also block teen access during part of the night, restrict notifications during school hours and give parents more control over how long their children use the apps.
The new rules apply to users under 18. A teen will not be able to remove the two-hour limit without parental permission.
The Two Hours Will Be Shared Between Facebook and Instagram
The new limit does not give a teenager two hours on Facebook and another two hours on Instagram.
Meta says the two-hour daily allowance is cumulative across both services. Time spent scrolling Facebook and Instagram contributes to the same total, including activity across multiple accounts when Meta identifies them as belonging to the same person.
Direct messaging is excluded from the time restriction. Meta says that exception is intended to preserve communication with friends and family even after the daily limit has been reached.
| New Teen Protection | Initial Setting |
| Daily Facebook and Instagram use | 2 hours combined |
| Who can remove the daily limit | Parent or guardian |
| Night access | Blocked from midnight to 6 a.m. |
| School-hour notifications | Muted from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
| Continuous-use prompt | Every 15 minutes |
| Additional daily prompts | At 60 and 90 minutes |
Meta announced the agreement on August 26 and later updated its statement to note that a judge had approved it. The company describes the measures in its agreement with state attorneys general.
The New Limit Is Part of a Major Legal Settlement
The restrictions did not begin as a routine product update.
State attorneys general sued Meta in 2023, alleging that Facebook and Instagram included features designed to encourage excessive use by children and teenagers and that Meta misrepresented risks associated with those products.
Meta disputed allegations made against the company. Litigation continued until the parties reached the 2026 agreement.
The New York Attorney General says the settlement could require Meta to pay up to $17.1 billion to participating states. The money is intended to support services and programs related to unhealthy social media use among young people.
The New York settlement announcement also describes the restrictions on time, notifications, algorithmic feeds and content shown to minors.
Teens Will Be Locked Out Between Midnight and 6 A.M.
Meta is adding a default nighttime block alongside the daily time limit.
Users under 18 will generally lose access to Facebook and Instagram between midnight and 6 a.m. unless a parent changes the restriction.
During the blocked period, teens will not be able to browse Feed, Stories, Explore or Reels.
Direct messages remain available. Meta treats messaging differently because teenagers may need it to contact parents, relatives or friends.
Notifications Will Also Be Reduced During School Hours
Time limits are only one part of the settlement.
Notifications will be muted by default between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. during school hours. Direct-message alerts and certain account security or safety notifications are excluded.
The settlement also restricts nighttime push notifications. The goal is to reduce prompts that encourage teenagers to reopen the apps during school or overnight.
The approach addresses more than total screen time. A teenager who receives repeated notifications throughout the day can return to an app many times even if each individual session is short.
Meta Will Interrupt Long Scrolling Sessions
Teen users will receive an on-screen prompt after every 15 minutes of continuous use.
Additional reminders will appear when combined daily use reaches 60 minutes and again at 90 minutes.
The prompts arrive before the two-hour limit is reached. Meta is therefore adding several interruption points rather than waiting until all permitted time has been used.
Parents will also receive more information about teen activity through Meta Family Center. The company has been expanding those supervision tools throughout 2026.
Parents Will Have More Control Over Teen Accounts
The settlement gives parents authority over several settings that teenagers would otherwise be unable to change themselves.
Parents can approve changes to the daily limit and nighttime restrictions. Meta will also provide more information about account activity and attempts by teenagers to alter protective settings.
Parents can receive alerts when a supervised teenager connects another account. Meta also plans to provide information about interactions with accounts its systems identify as potentially suspicious.
Those tools build on Teen Accounts, which Meta first introduced on Instagram in 2024 and later expanded to Facebook and Messenger.
Teen Accounts Already Restrict Who Can Contact Young Users
The two-hour limit sits on top of protections already applied to many teen accounts.
Instagram teen accounts are private by default, which limits who can view posts and interact with the account. Meta also restricts contact from adults its systems identify as potentially suspicious.
Age-based content controls limit recommendations involving subjects Meta considers inappropriate for teenagers. In 2026, the company expanded a 13+ content setting across Instagram, Facebook and Messenger.
Search restrictions also cover sensitive subjects. Meta says its teen protections restrict results involving suicide, self-harm, eating disorders and other categories considered unsuitable for younger users.
Meta Is Trying to Identify Teens Who Enter a False Age
Age restrictions depend on platforms knowing that an account belongs to a teenager.
Someone who enters an adult birth date at registration can otherwise avoid some protections. Meta has expanded automated age-assurance systems intended to identify accounts that appear to belong to teenagers even when the listed birthday says otherwise.
The company says its systems can use profile information and contextual signals, such as references to school grades or birthday celebrations, when estimating that an account belongs to someone under 18.
Meta has also said its visual analysis does not create facial fingerprints or identify individuals through biometric facial recognition.
The Settlement Follows Years of Debate Over Teen Social Media Use
Social media companies have faced increasing legal and political pressure over the way young people use algorithmic feeds, notifications and other engagement features.
State lawsuits against Meta have alleged that product design contributed to compulsive use among young people. Meta has contested claims that its platforms caused the harms alleged in those cases and has pointed to years of parental controls and teen protections.
Federal lawmakers are considering related issues through legislation as well. Our report on the Kids Online Safety Act debate examines proposed federal duties for platforms used by minors and the concerns critics have raised about how those rules could affect online speech.
Social Media Mental Health Lawsuits Are a Separate Legal Issue
The settlement changes how Meta operates Facebook and Instagram for teenagers, but it does not automatically resolve every individual claim involving alleged harm from social media use.
Families dealing with serious outcomes such as self-harm may also examine the civil cases being filed against social media companies. TorHoerman Law publishes information about lawsuits alleging that social media use contributed to self-harm or related injuries.
An individual claim still depends on evidence about the persons platform use, medical history, alleged injury, causation and the law that applies to the case.
The Two-Hour Limit Does Not Mean Social Media Causes a Specific Mental Health Outcome
A platform time restriction should not be read as proof that spending more than two hours on social media causes a particular psychiatric condition.
Research into social media and adolescent mental health is complicated because usage, sleep, family circumstances, school experiences, existing mental health conditions and many other factors can overlap.
The legal settlement addresses product design and protections for minors. It does not create a medical threshold at which Instagram or Facebook use becomes harmful for every teenager.
Our earlier report on online safety risks in 2026 also covers threats that extend past screen time, including harmful private messages, scams, impersonation and coercive contact involving young users.
Teenagers Will Be Able to Choose a Non-Algorithmic Feed
The agreement also addresses how content is selected.
Users under 18 will receive an option for a feed that does not rely on personalized recommendation algorithms to decide what appears next. The alternative can present content from accounts they follow in chronological order.
Parents using Meta supervision tools can make that non-personalized format the default for a supervised teenager.
The change is significant because the settlement is not limited to how long someone uses an app. It also reaches the system deciding what the user sees during that time.
Visible Like Counts Will Be Restricted for Teens
Meta will also limit the way social feedback is displayed to young users.
The settlement includes restrictions on showing teenagers numerical totals for likes and other reactions on posts.
Meta will continue restricting cosmetic filters for users under 18, including filters that alter skin tone. Teen accounts will also remain subject to content and contact protections already operating on the platforms.
Parents can apply stricter settings through supervision controls when they want tighter restrictions than the default teen experience.
Meta Must Respond Faster to Reports From Teen Users
Reporting harmful content is another part of the agreement.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta says Meta must create an improved reporting system for teenagers and respond to 90% of covered reports within six hours.
The requirement is aimed at material that teenagers identify as inappropriate, offensive, illegal or otherwise harmful under the settlement terms.
Meta has also committed to regularly evaluating how frequently teenagers encounter content the company classifies as potentially harmful.
The Initial Restrictions Are Expected to Last for Years
The agreement is structured as a long-term set of obligations rather than a temporary experiment.
Meta says most of the requirements will remain in force for 10 years.
The initial two-hour daily limit and midnight-to-6 a.m. nighttime restriction begin with a five-year commitment.
A separate provision can extend and strengthen those controls if other large social media companies join a similar framework.
TikTok and YouTube Could Trigger Stricter Limits
Meta has publicly asked TikTok and YouTube to adopt the same teen protections.
If other major platforms enter qualifying agreements, the Meta restrictions become tighter. The daily limit would change to one hour per app, and the nighttime block would expand from midnight-to-6 a.m. to 10 p.m. through 7 a.m..
The stronger version would also extend the relevant commitments from five years to 10 years.
Meta argues that limits on one service have less effect if teenagers simply move to another app after reaching the daily cap. TikTok and YouTube are not automatically bound by the Meta agreement.
An Independent Auditor Will Check Meta Compliance
The settlement contains outside oversight provisions.
An independent auditor will review Meta compliance and report findings to participating states annually for five years.
The agreement will also establish an independent social media research foundation. Meta says consented user data will be made available through the foundation for research into teen well-being and online behavior.
Those requirements give state officials a way to evaluate implementation after the initial rollout rather than relying only on company statements about the new features.
The Limit Applies to Under-18 Users in Participating Jurisdictions
The announcement is sometimes described as a general worldwide Instagram and Facebook change, but the settlement itself is tied to participating US states and territories.
Meta continues to run Teen Accounts and other youth protections in markets outside the United States. The specific two-hour settlement limit, however, comes from the US agreement with state attorneys general.
Parents outside the covered jurisdictions can already use Family Center tools to set time restrictions for supervised accounts, but that is different from the automatic two-hour rule created by the settlement.
Direct Messages Will Remain Available After the Limit Is Reached
The messaging exception changes what the two-hour limit actually does.
A teenager who reaches the daily cap will lose normal access to Facebook and Instagram content, but direct messaging remains available.
The same exception applies during Night Mode and School Mode. Meta says teenagers still need a way to communicate with family and friends even when other parts of the apps are unavailable.
Account security and safety alerts also receive separate treatment so important notifications are not blocked with ordinary engagement prompts.
The New Rules Go Further Than the Original Teen Accounts
Teen Accounts initially concentrated on privacy, messaging, content recommendations and parental supervision.
The August 2026 agreement adds mandatory time controls that teenagers cannot simply switch off themselves.
The cumulative limit across Facebook and Instagram is especially different from a reminder that a user can dismiss. Once the two-hour total is reached, continued normal use depends on parental permission.
The change gives parents direct control over extending access rather than leaving the final decision entirely with the teenager using the account.
The Two-Hour Rule Is Expected to Reshape Daily Teen Use
Meta is moving from reminders about screen time to a default limit backed by parental approval.
For covered teenagers, Facebook and Instagram use will count toward one shared two-hour total. Access will also be restricted overnight, notifications will fall during school hours and longer scrolling sessions will trigger repeated prompts.
Other parts of the settlement address content recommendations, likes, reporting tools, age checks and parental oversight.
The result is a much more restrictive default account than the version many teenagers used only a few years ago. How the rules affect actual usage will become clearer after the limits are fully deployed and independent compliance reports begin examining how Meta applies them.
