Children in the UK will not be given the additional protection measures Meta has pledged to roll out in the US after reaching an eye-watering settlement in America.
A $18bn (£13.24bn) deal has been agreed with the Facebook and Instagram owner Meta following claims brought by 29 US states that argued the platforms harmed children.
On top of the financial settlement, Meta has guaranteed that it will introduce significant protections to children and teen accounts on their apps.
These changes, which include daily time limits that can’t be turned off and muted notifications during school hours, will only be automatically applied to the accounts of those under 18 in “participating US states and territories”.
It means that young people in the UK will not be included in this raft of new safety measures. The Government said it is “following developments closely”.
Meta also pledged to continue to ensure only age-appropriate content is shown, stop unwanted contact from strangers, make it easy for teens to report concerning content and to block the ability for teens to add filters to their photos to make it look like they have had cosmetic surgery.
The tech giant says the new pledges are “building on our longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens” and are billing the move as setting the “new industry standard”.
British children and teens using Facebook and Instagram currently have some protections in place already, with “Teen Accounts” which limits who can contact teens and places restrictions on the content they see.
The protections from Meta require a user to be honest about their age if they are a child, although protections are in place that requires a user to submit ID or a video selfie if the system detects suspicious behaviour suggesting the user is lying about their age.
Children in the UK are also now protected by the Online Safety Act, which is being enforced by media regulator Ofcom.
It means that social media giants can be pursued if they are found to be putting children at risk online, including not taking adequate measures to prevent young people from viewing harmful content, including suicide and eating disorder posts.
“Under the Online Safety Act, platforms must minimise children’s exposure to violent material and content promoting dangerous challenges,” Ofcom said, after harmful content glamorising reckless driving in the UK were found across different platforms following two high-speed crashes.
The regulator launched an investigation into TikTok‘s compliance with its child safety duties in July and said “we’ve shown we’ll take action if evidence suggests companies are falling short.”
But many campaigners say not enough is being done to protect children from online harms, with some calling for a complete ban on children under 16 using social media. The previous prime minister Keir Starmer announced that all British under-16s will be banned from major social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.
A UK Government spokesperson said: “While this is a matter for Meta and the US courts, we are following developments closely.”
They emphasised that the Online Safety Act requires platforms to protect users under 18 from harmful content and said “we are already taking furthersteps to promote British children’s wellbeing and protect them from online harms by introducing a social media ban for under 16s next year.”
The added: “We are also taking action on harmful features and addictive functionalities like limiting excess screentime and infinite scroll.”
An investigation by The i Paper in January 2025, after the Act was brought in but before it was fully enforced, found content designed to amplify feelings of depression and anger were repeatedly pushed to a social media profile set up for a 13-year-old boy even though he wasn’t searching for such content.
What safety changes has Meta promised for children in the USA?
Meta has laid out 13 pledges that are set to be rolled out. It says they are “pending judicial approval” and will automatically apply to under-18s on Instagram and Facebook “in participating US states and territories”.
The tech giant states the “majority of the terms are required to remain in place for 10 years”.
Some features, including sleep time, study time and time limits, will not cover direct messages. Meta says this is to “allow teens to stay connected with friends and family”.
Time limits: A default daily time limit of two hours that can only be overridden by a parent, with that time covering use of both Facebook and Instagram. It will also encompass if a child has multiple accounts on those platforms. Sleep time: Apps will be blocked between midnight and 6am. Study time: Limits to the types of push notifications sent during school hours. Nudges: Teens will be notified after 15 minutes of continuous screentime and once they have spent a total of 60 and 90 minutes on the apps. No likes: The number of likes and reactions on posts will be hidden by default. No filters: Child users will not be able to edit their photos to look like they have “extreme make up” on. Option for no autoplay: Teen accounts can opt to stop videos from starting automatically. Option for no algorithms: There will be an option for feeds not to be personalised by the apps’ algorithms. This means the rolling suggested content on the app will not be determined by Meta’s technology, which is designed to show posts that have been calculated to be of interest to the user. Age checks: Meta already says it actively tries to remove underage accounts from their apps, but has now pledged to invest “in even stronger technology to proactively catch accounts that may belong to under-13s”, as well as steps to identify accounts that may be between the ages of 13 and 17. Boost for parents: New parental controls will be added to existing support, including notifying parents when a teen links a secondary account and alerting them to interactions with suspicious accounts.Meta also pledged to continue to ensure only age-appropriate content is shown, stop unwanted contact from strangers, make it easy for teens to report concerning content and to block the ability for teens to add filters to their photos to make it look like they have had cosmetic surgery.
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