Instagram and Facebook will impose daily time limits and nighttime blocks on teen accounts under a settlement that sends at least $227 million to Washington over the next decade.

Attorney General Nick Brown announced the deal Wednesday, Aug. 26. It is part of a $17.1 billion multistate agreement his office called the largest state consumer protection settlement in history outside the Big Tobacco cases of the 1990s.

A total of 52 attorneys general across states, territories and the District of Columbia joined the case.

Meta denied wrongdoing but agreed to sweeping platform changes for users under 18. The terms, which must stay in place for at least 10 years, include a default two-hour daily time limit across Facebook and Instagram that teens can turn off only with a parent's permission.

A "Night Mode" will block the apps between midnight and 6 a.m. A "School Mode" will mute push notifications by default between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on school days, with exceptions for direct messages and security alerts.

The settlement also requires prompts after every 15 minutes of continuous use and at the 60- and 90-minute marks. Like counts will be hidden for teens, cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters will be banned, and users will have the option of a non-algorithmic feed. Meta must also invest in technology to catch accounts belonging to children under 13.

"Meta pushed back hard, claiming to legislators and leaders that the changes and reforms that we sought were impossible," Brown said at an Aug. 27 press briefing, as reported by KNKX. "But this settlement proves that was a lie."

Brown was referring to the Protect Washington Children Online Act, Senate Bill 5708, which he had pushed during the 2025 legislative session.

The attorneys general alleged Meta knew children as young as 11 and 12 were on its platforms, built features that were addictive and harmful to that age group, and failed to enforce age limits.

The states' case drew on internal Meta communications that allegedly reached Meta President Mark Zuckerberg.

At the Aug. 26 news conference, Brown said Meta knew about the harms to children and chose profits over their safety, according to the Seattle Times.

Meta, in an official statement, called on TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar restrictions.

The company said it would pay an additional $5 billion if those platforms implement a one-hour daily limit, Night Mode and age-verification measures. That could mean an additional $112 million for Washington, according to KNKX, potentially bringing the state's total to $339 million.

An independent auditor will review Meta's compliance annually for five years, according to Meta's statement. The settlement will also create an independent research foundation with access to consented user data to study teen well-being.

The Washington State Legislature will decide how to spend the settlement money as it arrives over the next decade.

Brown said attorney costs will be paid first, with remaining funds going to consumer protection programs addressing the mental health effects of youth social media use.

The settlement is subject to court approval. The case was tried before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California.