Is Your Teen Scrolling Too Much? Meta Introduces Two-Hour Daily Limit

Facebook parent company Meta has agreed to settle cases involving allegations related to youth mental health and data privacy with 52 bipartisan attorneys general representing US states, territories and Washington, DC.

The company will pay approximately $18 billion under the agreement and introduce significant changes aimed at protecting users under 18 on Facebook and Instagram.

Meta has outlined a series of behavioural, algorithmic and privacy changes designed to promote healthier social media habits and provide parents with greater control over their children’s online activity.

The company will introduce a two-hour daily limit across Facebook and Instagram.

The restriction will combine usage on both platforms, including time spent scrolling through multiple accounts.

Teenagers will need verified parental permission to disable the limit.

Meta will automatically activate Night Mode between midnight and 6 AM. The feature will block minors from accessing Feeds, Stories, Reels and Explore during those hours.

Young users will receive an option to make a non-personalised, non-algorithmic feed their default view.

Meta will regularly remind teenagers about the option, while parents will have the ability to enforce the setting. It will hide like and reaction counts by default on posts belonging to minor accounts and on posts viewed by them.

Meta said it is deploying improved artificial intelligence systems to identify and remove accounts belonging to children under 13.

Users aged between 13 and 17 will receive protective experiences even when they provide adult birth dates.

Teen accounts will automatically receive 13+ content guardrails based on movie-rating standards. Parental feedback will, however, help limit exposure to unsuitable accounts and content.

The company will make minor profiles private by default and strengthen protections against suspicious adult accounts. It will make it more difficult for unfamiliar adults to discover or contact teenagers.

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