Under the agreement, users under 18 will face a default two-hour daily limit across both platforms that can only be extended with parental consent, alongside a "Night Mode" that blocks app access between midnight and 6:00 AM.
Meta will pay approximately $18 billion over ten years to fund youth safety initiatives as part of the deal, which is currently pending judicial approval.
The agreement aims to establish a new industry standard for protecting minors by imposing concrete restrictions on app engagement.
Key measures include "School Mode," which mutes notifications during school hours, and the removal of cosmetic surgery filters and visible "like" counts.
Meta stated that these changes are necessary to address concerns regarding teen well-being, but the company emphasized that the protections are most effective when applied across the entire digital landscape.
Consequently, Meta is publicly urging competitors TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar restrictions to prevent teens from simply migrating to other platforms when they hit their time limits.
Looking forward, the settlement includes financial incentives for industry-wide adoption; $5.3 billion of the total payment is contingent on TikTok and YouTube implementing matching one-hour daily limits and age assurance technology.
For Meta users, the agreement introduces an independent auditor to monitor compliance for five years and creates a research foundation to study teen well-being using consented data.
While direct messaging remains exempt from time restrictions to allow for family communication, teens will be prompted to use non-algorithmic feeds—content streams not personalized by automated recommendation systems—to encourage more intentional use of the platforms.