WorldChanges are coming for teen Instagram and Facebook users after parent company Meta agreed to platform changes in a landmark U.S. settlement to resolve claims of online harms to youth. Experts tell CBC News what's changing, how widely and what impact this might have going forward.'Writing is on the wall for the social media industry,' says analystJessica Wong · CBC News · Posted: Aug 28, 2026 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoListen to this articleEstimated 6 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.Meta, parent company of social media platforms Instagram and Facebook, has agreed to a multi-state settlement worth up to $18 billion US, with American officials billing it the largest state consumer protection settlement in history outside of the Big Tobacco settlements of the 1990s. (Richard Drew/AP)Changes are coming for teen users of social media platforms Instagram and Facebook. Parent company Meta agreed this week to make platform design changes for young users and pay up to $18 billion US over the next decade to resolve claims of online harms to youth stemming from nearly every U.S. state and territory. A coalition of U.S. attorneys general have described it as the largest state consumer protection settlement in history outside of the Big Tobacco settlements of the 1990s. "The writing is on the wall for the social media industry. This is their tobacco moment," said Canadian tech analyst Carmi Levy. "Things change for Meta and other companies like it from this point forward."What's changing for teens? New measures are coming for the Instagram and Facebook accounts of users under 18, including:Time limits and pauses: a default time limit of two hours daily across both platforms in total, plus prompts and pauses after 15, 60 and 90 minutes of continuous use to disrupt "endless scrolling." Blackout periods: blocks on most usage between midnight and 6 a.m. and notifications muted between the general school hours of 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. (excluding security or safety alerts).More control over feeds: the ability to choose a non-algorithmic feed by default (along with periodic reminders about this feature) and being able to switch off autoplaying content.Limits to social comparison features: hiding "like" counts/reactions and blocking "extreme makeup" filters.Stronger age verification and age-related content restrictions.Meta says it will continue existing work blocking strangers from contacting teen accounts and improve reporting tools and parental controls. It also vowed to toughen some of its new measures — for instance, further reducing the daily time limit to one hour — if rival social platforms Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube also adopted comparable ones.WATCH | A turning point for social media?:Could Meta’s $18B settlement change social media forever?August 26|Duration 2:33Meta Platforms agreed to pay up to $18 billion US as part of a settlement to resolve claims brought by states across the United States that the company designed the apps to get children addicted to them, misled consumers about their ‌safety and improperly collected the personal data of children who used its platforms.Does this affect Canadian teens too? Technically the settlement applies to the U.S. market — and American teens should expect to see these changes in the next few months, Levy says — but teens everywhere should get ready. Levy says these tweaks will likely spread wider given the concern in so many countries about negative social media impacts on youth."Historically, whenever technology companies like Meta introduce significant changes to their infrastructure in a certain region, eventually they do go global," he said from London, Ont."I would expect over time Canada will see these changes as well. It's a lot easier for these companies to maintain a common set of tools and features around the world than to have unique features for each country where they do business."WATCH | What Meta's settlement means for Canada:What could the Meta settlement in California mean for Canada?August 26|Duration 5:35Meta agreed to a $16.68-billion US settlement over claims it designed its social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to make them addictive to children. The settlement was reached Wednesday during a California federal trial. Tech analyst and journalist Carmi Levy breaks down the settlement and what it could mean for Canada.Does this make social media safer? The settlement is a step in the right direction, says Jenny Perez, mom of a middle-schooler and founder of the parental advocacy group Unplugged Canada. Yet she sees a much longer list of safety concerns for social media companies to tackle. Meta trial begins with states accusing social media giant of exploiting, intentionally addicting childrenAdding a few measures to address what kids experience "is somewhat helpful, but doesn't fix the fact that these products are addictive," she said from Vancouver.Digital media expert Richard Lachman lauds the interruption to infinite scrolling — a time-suck that's not unlike what researchers of gambling addiction explore, he noted. Yet the computer scientist and digital media professor at Toronto Metropolitan University says he'd rather not solely rely on what a company says it's doing to make itself safer. "Right now we have Meta's designers saying 'These are the steps we're going to take. Trust us,'" Lachman said. "I would be much happier with an independent, third-party [review]." WATCH | Meta strikes settlement of up to $18B US in multi-state lawsuit:Meta agrees to platforms changes, pay up to $18B US to settle lawsuitAugust 26|Duration 4:02Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion US to settle a major lawsuit launched by several U.S. states over social media addiction and security for children. The tech giant has also agreed to make changes to its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.Luke Stark, an associate professor of information and media studies at Western University, says the announced measures will help stem some compulsive social media use by teens. Yet he pointed out the measures are limited, noting for instance that older users are also drawn in by addictive platform design. "These systems affect everybody," he said from London, Ont. Though Stark calls the settlement "a big example — of which there are not very many — of Meta changing its design under threat of legal action," he thinks it could have gone further."The general business model of Facebook hasn't really been touched by this." What does this mean for proposed regulations in Canada? Thousands of U.S. state and federal lawsuits still face Meta, Snap (parent of the platform Snapchat), Alphabet (YouTube) and ByteDance (TikTok), but American cases must be considered very differently from those in Canada or internationally, said Toronto tech analyst Ritesh Kotak. Still, he thinks this week could be a hint of what's to come. "Meta may consider settling and just ending some of these lawsuits once and for all."B.C. lawsuit accuses Meta of harming the mental health of kidsOntario school boards clear hurdle in lawsuits against Meta, Snapchat, TikTokThe decision to settle "indicates to me that Meta understands that it's got a problem and that it has to kind of get ahead of any kind of regulatory effort," said David Fewer, a law professor at the University of Ottawa.Fewer suggests Meta's moves could pave the way to fulfilling requirements for Canada's proposed online safety legislation, though there's still "a lot more regulatory clay" to work with, he said, like Canadian calls to tackle addictive algorithm design. "We shouldn't mistake what Meta can live with, with what Canadians deserve."Back in Toronto, Lachman thinks Meta is eager to resolve its social media woes so as to shift its attention to artificial intelligence. "They want this to go away so they can focus on AI," he said. Meta will now tell parents if their teens talk about suicide with the company's AI chatbotMeta launches new AI model as Zuckerberg lays out vision for open-weight AI"They don't want to be mired in this. And even though $10, 15, 20 billion US sounds like a lot of money to us, in the size of the potential market for its AI ambitions, with the reach they have into regular daily use by billions of people around the world, this is where [CEO Mark Zuckerberg] wants to play."With files from Deana Sumanac, Cameron MacIntosh, Laura MacNaughton and Larry Guerriero