The recent landmark ruling against Meta in the United States was the result of a lawsuit filed in 2023, which went to trial in August 2026. It was brought by nearly fifty attorneys general, school districts and families, who alleged that the company’s social media platforms, which include Instagram and Facebook, pose serious risks to mental health.
The case ended in a $18 billion settlement and imposed direct structural changes on the way Instagram and Facebook operate. These could eventually extend to other platforms and social media networks, according to Attorney General William Tong.
Here, we will look at the scientific basis for each of the new measures.
Automatic, temporary blocks
Firstly, the agreement sets a limit of two hours’ use per day for under-18s, alongside regular reminders to encourage breaks and more self-regulated use.
Scientific research supports the general idea of limiting time spent on social media and encouraging breaks while using it. However, this does not make the two-hour limit a universal medical threshold, nor are the regular reminders scientifically established intervals.
Some experiment-based studies suggest that temporarily reducing usage may improve certain aspects of wellbeing, partly through improved sleep. However, the effects also depend on how and why social media is used.
Secondly, automatic restrictions will be put in place during the night, in line with evidence linking insomnia to mental health problems. However, this measure can be supplemented (or even replaced) by simpler measures at home, such as preventing teenagers from using their mobile phones in their bedrooms, or keeping phones out of the bedroom at night.
Thirdly, push notifications will be disabled during school hours. While this measure may limit direct calls for attention, frequent checking of social media has been linked to FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) – the anxiety of missing out on experiences that other people are having. This does not disappear simply by turning off notifications.
No more ‘beauty’ filters
The proposed removal of cosmetic filters would prevent young people from comparing themselves to a modified and unattainable image of themselves, which can lead to self-esteem or body image issues. However, if these types of filters remain available on adult accounts – where images of teenagers may be shared – young people could still be exposed to them.
The “Like” button will also disappear from teenagers’ accounts – a major incentive for posting content on social media. Even so, hiding the number of likes does not eliminate social interactions. Comments, followers, shares and messages will still provide signs of approval and recognition, and teenagers could simply shift towards these other forms of interaction.
Age checks and parental controls
There are two significant measures relating to privacy and security.
The first of these is stronger age verification. Systems are already being developed that do not require users to disclose their identity, exact date of birth or other personal data to the platform. However, these technologies still present challenges with regard to accuracy, false positives and negatives, the reliability of algorithms, and the balance between security and privacy.
The aim is to strike a balance between verification that protects minors and the data minimisation principle, whereby platforms safeguard privacy by taking only the minimum amount of data that they need.
The other measure involves improving parental controls to make them more accessible and enable parents to disable algorithmic feeds and autoplay. In this case, the use of automated firewalls can be very useful, but they are not a substitute for active parental involvement.
Beyond social media
Social media can be hugely beneficial for both adults and younger people, but it can also cause problems. Teenagers are more vulnerable to social media’s potential harms, and therefore require greater protection.
Of course, there are ways to mitigate social media’s inherent risks, but we can only know how effective they are after they have been implemented, using data on user behaviour and independent evaluations.
This means parents’ involvement will be crucial, but so too will that of teenagers themselves, since most measures can be circumvented. Mechanisms will need to be developed to, for instance, identify multiple accounts belonging to the same child, which could be used to get around age restrictions.
First and foremost, we must recognise that the problematic relationship between social media and adolescence goes beyond any measures corporations may take. While these are vital, we must also prioritise digital literacy, both for young people and for their parents and educators.
In this context, adults can set an extremely important example. It is not just a question of how many minutes we spend in front of screens, but also of how we use them, and how we behave while doing so.
This article was originally published in Spanish.
- is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education Sciences and Humanities. Principal Investigator of the TEKINDI Group, UNIR – International University of La Rioja.
- is a Research Scientist in neurodegenerative diseases and Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid
- is a Specialist Psychiatrist at La Fe Hospital, Valencia, Spain. Associate Professor, University of Valencia.
- This article first appeared in The Conversation
