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Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has agreed to pay $18 billion as part of a historic settlement with 48 state attorneys general who alleged the company purposely built Instagram and Facebook to get kids addicted to the apps.
The agreement includes a commitment from Meta to make changes that include imposing daily usage limits, "nighttime blocks" on app use before bed and "enhanced age assurance measures" to ensure underage kids can't use Facebook or Instagram, according to a court filing Wednesday.
Meta also agreed to create "additional tools to help parents and guardians to protect their children online" as part of what was described as a "consent judgment."
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Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg reacts as he testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on online child sexual exploitation at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 31, 2024. REUTERS
Still, critics note that the truce leaves untouched the algorithms that have been blamed for an epidemic of social media addiction.
"Meta's AI-powered recommendation engine is still running, engineered to maximize young people's engagement even with content that harms them," Jonathan Haidt, an NYU business professor and author of the 2024 book "The Anxious Generation," wrote in an X post on Wednesday.
"The work ahead is to make them change that design — not just how long kids can access Instagram's harmful design, and not just on an opt-in basis," Haidt added. "This is a great step. Let's all work together to make sure it's not the last."
Meta did not admit to wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which is pending court approval, nor do the product changes apply to its other apps like WhatsApp, Messenger or its AI chatbots.
The $18 billion, 10-year truce is the largest regulatory penalty ever paid by a Big Tech firm – dwarfing the $5 billion fine Meta was forced to pay to the FTC in 2019 to settle the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the European Union's $5 billion fine targeting Google's Android software in 2018.
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George Volichenko, former employee at Meta Platforms Inc., exits the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building & US Courthouse after testifying on Tuesday in Oakland, Calif. Getty Images
Still, it's a drop in the bucket for Meta, which raked in $200.1 billion in revenue last year alone. Based on that figure, Meta earns about $18 billion in revenue every 33 days.
Another major catch: Meta is only on the hook for $12.7 billion — or 70% of the settlement amount — to be paid in annual installments, unless its rivals TikTok and YouTube also agree to pay a combined $5.3 billion to the states and implement the same design changes, including a daily one-hour usage limit for teens. If they do, Meta will pay the remaining 30%, or an additional $5.3 billion.
## Here are the details of Meta's historic $18B settlement by the numbers:
- **$18 billion:** The biggest payout, by far, in Meta's history — dwarfing the $5 billion fine paid to the FTC in 2019.
- **33 days:** how long it takes Meta to earn $18 billion, based on its $200.1 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025.
- **30%:** Meta has agreed to pay 70% of the $18 billion settlement, but the final portion ONLY if its rivals TikTok and YouTube agree to pay a combined $5.3 billion of their own — and make the same app design changes.
- **2 hours:** the daily time limits Meta agreed to impose on teen use of Facebook and Instagram. The limit drops to one hour if TikTok and YouTube agree to do the same.
- **6 hours:**"Night mode" default setting that blocks teen access between midnight and 6 am.
- **10 years:** the length of time that most clauses in the settlement will remain in place.
- **Three:** Major changes to the teen experience, including a ban on so-called "cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters"; "Likes" and other reactions removed from teen posts by default; and stronger parental oversight and controls on how teens use its apps.
- **Zero:** Changes or restrictions to Meta's recommendation algorithm, as pointed out by famed psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who notes it is "engineered to maximize young people's engagement even with content that harms them."
Meta shares popped as much as 4% in early trades on news of the settlement, which was announced just days into a landmark trial in California federal court. Zuckerberg had been set to testify at some point in the proceedings.
With the settlement, Meta averted a trial that was widely seen as an unprecedented threat to its business model. The case is one of thousands that the social media giant currently faces in California state and federal court alleging it is responsible for fueling a teen mental health crisis.
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Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri leaves the courthouse on August 25, 2026. AFP via Getty Images
The settlement terms were cast as a win by online watchdog groups, with sources noting that daily one-hour limits for popular apps are a nominal improvement over cases in which obsessed teens used them for excessive amounts of time, including upwards of 16 hours per day.
Long-stalled legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act, which would impose a legal duty of care for social media firms to protect teens from harm, are still necessary to close the gaps, according to the Tech Oversight Project's executive director Sacha Haworth.
"We cannot truly protect all children and teens until these protections are required on every platform and are permanent – that's something only Congress can do," Haworth said in a statement.
CJ Mahoney, Meta's chief legal officer, said the settlement's proposed framework "will only work if all our peers join us."
"Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution. We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework, right away," Mahoney said.
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A poster of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is displayed as former Meta researchers Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage testify during a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Getty Images
Representatives for Google and TikTok did not immediately return requests for comment.
An independent auditor will track Meta's compliance with the settlement, which also bars the company from making false or misleading statements about its safety features.
California, Meta's home state, would be eligible to receive $1.5 billion to $2.1 billion of the settlement amount over its ten-year term, according to the state's attorney general Rob Bonta.
"Today, we have secured a settlement with Meta that will make social media less dangerous for our kids and make a world of a difference for children and their families," Bonta said in a statement. "Meta has agreed to make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm from its platforms — and will do it within months.
Jurors in the federal case heard testimony earlier this week from former Meta safety researcher Arturo Béjar, who declared in scorching testimony that "you just cannot trust Mark Zuckerberg with kids."
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wears the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses as he delivers a speech presenting the new line of smart glasses during the Meta Connect event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. REUTERS
Béjar also personally accused Zuckerberg of misleading the public about Meta's efforts to protect kids online.
"I felt that he created a false and misleading impression of Facebook's commitment to young people," said Béjar, who estimated that he spoke to Zuckerberg about safety issues at least 100 times during his tenure.
The coalition of state attorneys general accused Meta – which earns the bulk of its revenue from digital advertising – of violating federal law by harvesting kids' data without parental consent.
The state AGs also claimed that key features of Facebook and Instagram, including the "like button" and recommendation algorithms, are intentionally addictive and have contributed to a rise in anxiety, depression, self-harm and even suicide among teen users.
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A security guard stands watch by the Meta sign outside the headquarters of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc in Mountain View, California. REUTERS
The four lead states in the case – California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey – further alleged that Meta misled the public about the extent of the safety risks associated with kids using its apps.
Ahead of the trial, Meta claimed that the states were seeking $1.4 trillion in damages – nearly equal to the company's entire market cap. The tech giant's lawyers described the potential penalty as "outlandish" and far beyond the scope of their actual claims.
Lawyers for the states said $200 billion was a more realistic amount if they were to win the case at trial and said Meta was pushing the larger figure for "shock value."
Meta's legal losses have piled up this year as more cases head to court.
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Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, looks on during the US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in January 2024. AFP via Getty Images
The company was ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in damages in New Mexico after a state court ruled that Meta had misled residents about safety risks and exposed kids to online sex creeps via Facebook and Instagram.
Elsewhere, Meta was ordered to pay a share of a $6 million judgement in California state court after a jury ruled in favor of a woman known as "KGM" who alleged that its apps and Google-owned YouTube fueled her anxiety and depression.