Meta child safety settlement: implications for UK and EU platforms
In short: The Meta child safety settlement, filed in the Northern District of California on 26 August 2026, commits Meta to a two-hour default daily limit for teenagers, an overnight night access mode and hidden like counts on Instagram and Facebook. The agreement limits those obligations to the settling US states. Neither Ofcom nor the European Commission is bound by that limit.
Meta’s settlement with 51 US attorneys general commits it to a two-hour default daily limit on Instagram and Facebook, an overnight block, push notifications disabled during school hours and like counts hidden from teenagers. The agreement states in terms that none of this applies outside the settling US states. Ofcom and the European Commission are not parties to it, and each already has its own power to require the same design changes. The settlement is evidence that Meta can build these things, and feasibility is what UK and EU proportionality analysis depends on.
What Meta has agreed to build
The settlement was filed as a proposed consent judgment in In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 3047, N.D. Cal.) and announced by the California Attorney General on 26 August 2026. Meta will pay roughly $11.7 billion in guaranteed instalments across ten years, rising to about $17 billion in total if Snap, TikTok and YouTube take on equivalent obligations. The agreement itself states no headline figure, which is why reported totals differ.
Teenage accounts default to a night access mode from midnight to 6 a.m. on the device’s local time zone, a two-hour daily limit across both apps, push notifications disabled from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and again during school hours, like and reaction counts hidden, and a prompted option to choose a feed that is not personalised. Filters that mimic cosmetic surgery are disabled outright, with no opt-out for anyone. Every other default can be relaxed, but only by a supervising parent, and Meta is barred from recommending a less restrictive setting than the agreed default. Meta admits no liability, and the settlement takes effect only when the court enters the judgment.
The obligations are limited to the settling US states
Section X.C of the settlement agreement provides that the obligations, product modifications and concessions are “explicitly limited to the Settling States”, and that nothing in the agreement is to be construed to “apply to, establish a standard of care for, or serve as precedent in any non-participating U.S. state or any international jurisdiction whatsoever”. The consent judgment repeats the words. Meta therefore directly commits to nothing in the UK or the EU by reason of the settlement, and the drafting is aimed squarely at London and Brussels.
The agreement does not carry that limitation through its own operative sections. The territorial words appear in only five places, all of them in the age assurance, time management and audit provisions. The sections covering like counts, cosmetic filters, feed options and parental supervision carry no territorial qualifier and bind “Teen Users”, a term the agreement defines by age alone with no geographic element. There is no implementation clause, nothing on geolocation, and no test for allocating a teenage user to a settling state. The only technical anchor in the timing provisions is the device’s local time zone, which follows the handset rather than the jurisdiction. A clause between private parties can stop a court treating the settlement as precedent. It cannot stop a regulator reading it.
The UK already has the power to require the same changes
Under section 12 of the Online Safety Act 2023 a provider must take proportionate measures relating to the design or operation of its service to mitigate and manage the risks of harm to children. Section 13 sets out what proportionate means: the findings of the provider’s own children’s risk assessment, and the size and capacity of the provider. Ofcom has not yet required anything resembling a daily time limit, an overnight curfew or notification suppression under its Protection of Children Codes, in force since 25 July 2025. Those Codes constrain what enters a child’s feed by reference to the harmfulness of the content, and say nothing about how long the feed runs. The broader statutory picture is set out in our note on what the Online Safety Act requires of platforms.
Section 70 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 inserted section 214A into the Online Safety Act on 29 April 2026. It lets the Secretary of State make regulations limiting the amount of time per day for which children may use a service, and limiting the times of day at which they may use it. On 15 July 2026 the Government said it would use that power, announcing overnight curfews for 16 and 17 year olds from midnight to 6 a.m. with notifications switched off in the same window, and autoplay and personalised feeds off by default. Those regulations would take effect in spring 2027; none had been laid as at 27 August 2026. The under-16 restriction announced in June proceeds under the same power. The UK announced its midnight to 6 a.m. curfew six weeks before Meta agreed to build one.
The European Commission asked for this in July
On 10 July 2026 the European Commission preliminarily found that the addictive design of Instagram and Facebook breached the Digital Services Act, naming infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and highly personalised recommender systems. The Commission said Meta needs to make design changes, giving as examples disabling autoplay and infinite scroll by default, effective screen time breaks, and adapting its recommender system to make it less engagement-oriented. It had already reached preliminary findings on 29 April 2026 that Meta failed to identify, assess and mitigate the risks of under-13s using the services. Both remain preliminary findings, Meta may examine the file and respond in writing, and it has not been found in breach.
The DSA provisions in issue, named when the Commission opened proceedings in May 2024, are Article 28, which requires providers of online platforms accessible to minors to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security of minors, together with the systemic risk assessment and mitigation duties in Articles 34 and 35. The Commission’s guidelines on the protection of minors of 14 July 2025 recommend disabling by default the features that contribute to excessive use, including autoplay and push notifications. Following the guidelines is voluntary, but the Commission uses them to assess compliance with Article 28(1), so they shape what compliance looks like in practice. Fines under the DSA are capped at 6% of worldwide annual turnover.
| Design feature | What Meta has agreed in the US | What the UK Government has announced | What the European Commission has asked for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overnight block | Night access mode, midnight to 6 a.m., default for 13 to 17 year olds, relaxed only by a parent | Curfew, midnight to 6 a.m., for 16 and 17 year olds, user may change the setting | Not specified; time spent at night cited as a risk Meta disregarded |
| Push notifications | Disabled 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and during school hours | Disabled overnight in the curfew window | Named as an addictive design feature; default disabling recommended in the 2025 guidelines |
| Daily time limit | Two hours by default across both apps, with pauses at 60 and 90 minutes | Power to set one exists under section 214A; no figure announced | Effective screen time breaks |
| Autoplay | Restriction available as an accessible opt-in setting, never a default | Off by default for 16 and 17 year olds | Disabled by default |
| Infinite scroll | Not addressed | Not addressed | Disabled by default |
| Personalised feed | Prompted option to switch to a feed that is not personalised | Off by default for 16 and 17 year olds | Recommender system made less engagement-oriented |
| Legal status | Consent judgment, subject to court approval, no admission of liability | Announced; regulations not laid as at 27 August 2026 | Preliminary findings; no finding of breach |
Implications for platforms operating in the UK and the EU
The settlement creates no UK or EU legal obligation. It changes what a regulator can point to as evidence that a design change is feasible, and feasibility is what proportionality under section 13 of the Online Safety Act and adequacy of mitigation under Article 35 DSA both depend on. For Meta the effect is direct: it has agreed to build in one market what two regulators have asked it to build in another. Section 13(1)(b) makes the size and capacity of the provider expressly relevant, so a smaller service is not held to what the largest can afford.
Terms of service and default settings carry more weight than the underlying content moderation, because that is where all three regimes are converging, and the drafting side of that is set out in our platform terms and policies page. A service that builds a restrictive default for one market and not another will be asked why at its next children’s risk assessment under section 11, which requires a fresh assessment before any significant change to a service’s design or operation.
Viewpoint
Section X.C is the most revealing paragraph in the document. The clause binds only the parties to it: 51 US attorneys general, not Ofcom or the European Commission. An anti-precedent clause that expressly names international jurisdictions tells you where Meta expects the next argument to happen, and my own view is that it has little practical effect, as the question is not whether the order can be enforced, but rather what can technically be implemented.
The first section 214A regulations are due to be laid before the end of 2026, and Ofcom’s report on the use of age assurance commits it to advise Parliament by the end of October 2026 on determining whether a user is over 16. Both fall while Meta is still answering the European Commission in writing. The harder compliance question for any provider watching this is whether it can hold different defaults in different markets without the difference itself becoming the evidence against it. The settlement expires in ten years.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Meta child safety settlement apply in the UK?
No. Section X.C of the settlement agreement limits the obligations, product modifications and concessions to the settling US states, and states that nothing in the agreement applies to or establishes a standard of care in any international jurisdiction. It creates no obligation enforceable in the UK. It may still be put to a UK provider as evidence that a design change is feasible.
Do Ofcom’s Protection of Children Codes require overnight curfews or time limits?
No. The Codes in force since 25 July 2025 address age assurance, content moderation, reporting, recommender feeds and user controls. They contain no measure on session length, time of day or push notifications. The power to require those things is set out in section 214A of the Online Safety Act 2023, and regulations under it had not been laid as at 27 August 2026.
Has the European Commission found Meta in breach of the Digital Services Act?
Not yet. The Commission reached preliminary findings on 29 April 2026 on under-13 access and on 10 July 2026 on addictive design. Preliminary findings do not prejudge the outcome. Meta may examine the file and respond in writing before the Commission decides whether to adopt a non-compliance decision, which could carry a fine of up to 6% of worldwide annual turnover.
How much is Meta paying?
The agreement states no single figure. Ten guaranteed annual instalments total roughly $11.7 billion, with a separate cost fund of $75 million and a payment of about $459 million resolving four earlier complaints. A further $5 billion of contingency instalments is payable only if Snap, TikTok and YouTube take on equivalent time management and age assurance obligations.
If you are assessing how the UK children’s safety duties or the Digital Services Act apply to a service your business operates, Bratby Law advises platforms, operators and digital services on design-level compliance. Contact Rob Bratby.
