---
title: "Meta's US settlement puts the curfew switch with parents"
description: "Meta's settlement with 51 US attorneys general locks the overnight curfew behind a parent, unlike the UK's switch-off default."
canonical: https://parentalcontrols.co.uk/news/meta-settlement-parent-lock
---

Ban news

# Meta’s US settlement gives parents the switch the UK gives teenagers

Same platforms, same clock, opposite lock, and a year to prove its age checks work, watched by an auditor.

![](/assets/anna-moss.jpg)

By **[Anna Moss](/about)** · Manchester mum of one

Updated 3 September 2026

[Ban hub](/ban)

On 26 August 2026 Meta agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion over ten years to settle claims brought by 51 US attorneys general that Instagram and Facebook were built to hook young people. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers [approved the consent judgment](https://www.hunton.com/privacy-and-cybersecurity-law-blog/court-approves-meta-settlement-with-29-states-over-alleged-harms-to-children-and-teens) the same day, in the case brought by 29 of them, so the product changes are commitments rather than proposals. Buried in them is one that speaks directly to the UK: a[“default nighttime block between midnight and 6am for users under 18 that can only be lifted by a parent”](https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-secures-transformative-17-billion-settlement-meta), alongside a two-hour daily limit on the same terms.

The UK government picked those exact hours in July. Its overnight curfew covers 16- and 17-year-olds, and the fact sheet is explicit about who holds the switch: teenagers[“will remain free to change their settings if they wish to”](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fact-sheet-new-rules-to-protect-children-online/fact-sheet-new-rules-to-protect-children-online). A Censuswide poll last month found nearly 85% of older teenagers[said they would do exactly that](/news/teen-curfew-opt-out-poll).

The settlement's other half is age checks. Meta has agreed to age assurance strong enough to identify under-18s and remove under-13s, and to an independent auditor with, in the attorneys general's words, expansive access to its data and the right to take concerns straight to them. The District of Columbia[puts the money at $12.1 billion](https://oag.dc.gov/release/attorney-general-schwalb-announces-meta-will-pay) with a further $5 billion payable only if Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube adopt comparable measures.

Ofcom publishes its assessment of what counts as an effective age check at 16 in October. For the first time it will have something to read that Meta cannot walk back: audited numbers on how well the company can actually tell a 15-year-old from a 20-year-old.

None of it reaches this country by itself. The consent judgment says in terms that it does not “establish a standard of care, or serve as legal precedent in nonparticipating states or other countries”, and no attorney general's office says whether British accounts will see any of the changes. What crosses borders is the engineering: age checks Meta builds to pass a US audit are the same age checks running on the app your child opens here.

What this means for you

Nothing changes on your child's phone this week. A US court order does not bind Meta in Britain. What it shows is that the UK's overnight curfew is a choice, not a technical limit: the same block on the same app can sit behind a parent instead. Until it does here, an overnight cutoff is something you set yourself, and our [setup guides](/guides) cover the free ways to do it.