Meta has introduced court-approved default protections for under-18 accounts on Facebook and Instagram, including a combined two-hour daily limit and a default block from midnight to 6 a.m. Other changes include silenced notifications during school hours, periodic usage reminders, hidden like counts, and stronger parental supervision tools. Most provisions are required to remain in place for 10 years in participating states and territories. Meta stresses that platform changes must be paired with parental and community engagement and is urging other platforms to follow suit.
Meta Rolls Out Court-Approved Teen Protections: Default 2-Hour Limit, Nighttime Block and Expanded Parental Controls
Meta Is Putting Protections in Place to Keep Kids Safe (Like a 2-Hour Limit, Plus Alerts When Doomscrolling for Too Long)
Meta has announced a court-approved package of default protections for users under 18 on Instagram and Facebook that the company says will reduce exposure to harmful content and make screen-time management easier for families. The changes—part of an agreement with a bipartisan group and approved by a court—must remain in place for most provisions for 10 years in participating states and territories.
What Parents Should Expect
Two-Hour Combined Daily Limit. By default, teens will have a combined two-hour limit per day across Facebook and Instagram. The limit cannot be turned off without parental permission.
Nighttime Block (Midnight–6 a.m.). Facebook and Instagram will be blocked for teen accounts by default between midnight and 6 a.m. This applies to Feed, Stories, Explore and Reels. Direct Messaging is exempt so teens can still communicate with family and friends overnight.
Fewer School-Day Distractions. Notifications will be automatically silenced from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with exceptions for Direct Messages and safety or security alerts.
Built-In Friction to Curb Endless Scrolling. Teens will receive a reminder after every 15 minutes of continuous use, plus additional prompts when their total daily use reaches 60 and 90 minutes.
Parental Control Over Algorithmic Feeds. Parents will be able to require that their teen use a non-algorithmic feed and disable autoplay. Teens will also be able to select those options themselves.
Likes Hidden by Default. Like and reaction counts will be hidden by default for teen accounts—both on their own posts and on other people’s posts.
Greater Parental Visibility. Families using supervision tools can receive information about a teen’s time on the apps, attempts to change protective settings, secondary accounts they link, and accounts that appear suspicious and interact with the teen.
Other Safety Measures and Limits
Meta will continue to default teen Instagram accounts to private, restrict potentially suspicious adults from contacting teens, and limit exposure to age-appropriate content. The company also says it will strengthen technology to better identify accounts belonging to younger users—potentially catching users under 18 or under 13 even when an account's declared birthday indicates otherwise—though technical details are limited so far.
What This Means—and What It Doesn’t
These defaults introduce more friction around the features that encourage long sessions (for example, reminders, blocked hours and silenced notifications). However, many core engagement mechanics—autoplay, algorithmic recommendations and a near-infinite content stream—remain. That means the controls can help but won’t fully replace conversations and rules families set about phone and app use.
Antigone Davis, Meta’s VP and Global Head of Safety, emphasized that protecting young people online requires parents, communities and multiple platforms to act together. Meta is publicly urging other large platforms such as TikTok and YouTube to adopt comparable protections, noting that restricting teens on one app can simply push them to another if similar safeguards are not widespread.
Overall, the agreement is a significant, court-backed step toward reducing teen harms and encouraging healthier habits online, but experts and Meta alike say it is only one piece of a broader, community-level effort to keep young people safe.
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