Meta has agreed to put new guardrails on teenagers’ use of its apps, in a decision that could fundamentally change the social media experience for young people in the US.

In a turnaround, the social media giant will make several safety limitations the default option for young users, instead of requiring them to opt in.

The changes came as part of a settlement in a major trial in California, which also requires the social media company to pay up to $17bn to the states that filed suit. They represent the first time that Meta has been forced to change key features of the experience of everyday users on its home turf.

Rob Bonta, the California attorney general and a lead lawyer on the case, brought by 29 states, called the changes a “watershed” moment and said the default nature of the features will make it harder for young users to circumvent these guardrails.

Default safety restrictions

The biggest alteration is that Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, is now required to make many of its safety limitations the default setting for accounts created by teens, a pivot from its previous opt-in approach to child safety. These settings cannot be changed without the permission of a supervising parent account that is linked to the teen account.

Although Meta has long touted tools like screen-time warnings as proof the company is committed to safety, the company has previously refrained from making such features the preset standard.

When teens first create an Instagram account, they will no longer see a personalized feed or likes on their posts unless a supervising parent changes the setting, for instance.

State attorneys have argued that Meta’s teen safety options rarely get used because they are not automatically turned on. A state prosecutor for Colorado questioned Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri earlier this week about one screen-time warning tool, called Take a Break, which the prosecutor stated only 1.8% of teens signed up to use. A Meta product manager had testified that very few people ever used the feature.

“I’ve definitely said publicly that the opt-in rates are low,” Mosseri stated.

The changes, subject to court approval, would build upon some of the restrictions the company already makes available for its teen accounts.

The settlement also prohibits Meta from making false and misleading statements about its safety features.

Parental supervision features

The agreement gives adults who are designated as a “supervising parent” the ability to extensively monitor and change the settings of a teen account if both users agree to the controls. The parental supervision features include receiving information on children’s time spent using the app, as well as the usernames of their social connections and names of accounts that are messaging them.

Supervising parents will also receive daily notifications from Meta any time the teen account messages an adult account for the first time, as well as a link to the adult’s account. Parental accounts will also be notified any time the teen account searches for keywords related to suicide, self-harm or eating disorders.

Time limits and ‘school mode’

Meta will be required to implement default limits on app usage for teen accounts, which vary depending on the time of day.

Teen accounts can only be used a total of two hours per day, although parents can change these settings.

The settlement also mandates a “night mode” and “school mode” that restricts app usage and notifications from 12am to 6am and 8am and 3pm on weekdays during the school year.

Meta agreed to limit teen accounts to only an hour a day if other platforms institute similar time restrictions.

Disabling likes and filters for teenagers

The agreement requires Meta to limit “social comparison” features on teen accounts, banning displaying like counts by default and barring teens from using “cosmetic procedure filters”.

Age verification and privacy risks

Meta has to use either identification or facial recognition verification systems to make sure teens aren’t using regular Instagram accounts. This must be tested by a third party every year.

Collecting behavioral and identifying data poses significant privacy risks, said David Greene, legal counsel at digital privacy firm Electronic Frontier Foundation. It’s extremely difficult to protect against data breaches and law enforcement requests for data, Greene said.

Potential precedent

In an open letter published on Wednesday, Meta called on TikTok and YouTube to implement similar changes to the way the social media firms handle teen accounts. Snap, a much smaller social media company, was not included in the letter.

Meta said the “groundbreaking” agreement would only work if all platforms incorporated similar policies.

“Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution,” said the company’s chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney.

Digital advocacy group the Tech Oversight Project said Congress needed to ensure these limitations “are required on every platform and are permanent”.