Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s Landmark Meta Settlement Goes Into Effect

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, August 27, 2026
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RALEIGH - Attorney General Jeff Jackson's historic settlement with Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, is now in effect after the judge approved the settlement hours after it was announced.

The landmark settlement is the largest big tech settlement ever and includes major child safety upgrades on Meta's social media platforms. Meta will pay $17.1 billion to the states, including up to $645 million, with a guaranteed minimum of $451 million, to North Carolina. Attorney General Jackson announced the settlement Wednesday morning, and U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers approved it later that same day.

"The quick approval of this settlement underscores just how important these child safety changes are to protecting kids," said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. "We appreciate the judge seeing the importance of getting these changes quickly and not losing another generation of kids to social media addiction. Now the ball is in Meta's court to get to work and meet the terms our agreement to keep our kids safe."

As part of the settlement, Meta will implement comprehensive measures to determine users' age and keep children under 13 off the platform, implement more protective default settings, and give parents more control to adjust their 13-to-17-year-old's account settings.

Within the next three to six months, Meta will implement:

• Daily Time Limit: Teens will only be able to access their account for two hours every day. After they hit the two-hour limit, the account will time out until the next day. They won't be able to scroll or access their feed, but they will be able to send direct messages on Instagram and Facebook.

• Nighttime Block: The feeds on the apps will not be accessible from midnight to 6 a.m. every night to protect teens' ability to sleep. They won't be able to scroll or access their feed during those hours. Additionally, teens will not receive any notifications from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.

• No School Hour Notifications: During school hours, Instagram and Facebook non-messenger push notifications for teens will be off (8 a.m. - 3 p.m. on weekdays from Aug. 15 to June 15).

• Scrolling Pauses: At every 15 minutes of continuous app usage, Instagram and Facebook will display a pop-up notification to discourage teens from endlessly scrolling. Harder pauses will kick in once children have been on the app for 60 and 90 minutes a day.

• Likes Off: Meta will turn off counts of likes and reactions by default on all posts, stories, and reels to help prevent teens from comparing themselves to others.

• Removal of Extreme Beauty Filters: Meta will disable extreme filters that mimic cosmetic surgery or changes someone's body.

More on the historic settlement here.

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