Meta today said it will implement major changes to Facebook and Instagram's child safety features as part of a settlement agreement with almost all U.S. states. Here's what will change for users under 18 on Instagram and Facebook if the agreement is approved. Time Limit - Teens will have a two-hour daily time limit on Facebook and Instagram, though it can be overridden by a parent. The two-hour total includes both apps. Night Mode - Users will be blocked from posting and viewing content between midnight and 6 a.m. School Mode - Notifications are muted between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Prompts - The apps will send prompts after every 15 minutes of continuous screen time. There will also be prompts when daily usage hits 60 minutes and 90 minutes. Feed Control - Teens can choose a non-algorithmic feed that does not include personalization through the Instagram and Facebook recommendation systems. Parents will be able to require this setting. Autoplay Control - Teens will be able to turn off autoplay. Parents can require this setting. Hidden Likes - Teens won't see the likes and reactions on a post by default. Filters - Cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters won't be accessible to teens. Age Assurance - ‌Meta‌ plans to strengthen tools it uses to catch accounts belonging to users under 13, as well as accounts used by teens aged 13 to 17 to make sure the accounts have "experiences designed for teens." Parental Controls - ‌Meta‌ will add new controls for parents, notifying them if a teen links a second account or interacts with suspicious accounts. Parents will also get periodic updates on teen usage. Direct Messages - Direct messages are exempt from Time Limit, Night Mode , and School Mode. ‌Meta‌ will also pay approximately $18 billion to states to fund online youth safety initiatives, which is far less than its 2025 net income of $60.5 billion. The payment will be spread over a 10-year period, and ‌Meta‌ is withholding $5.3 billion unless TikTok and YouTube implement similar measures. If they do, ‌Meta‌ says it will lower daily usage limits from two cumulative hours across both apps to one hour for each app and expand ‌Night Mode‌ to run from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. ‌Meta‌ wants YouTube and TikTok to add a one-hour daily limit, night mode, and age assurance measures, as well as pay $5.3 billion each to match ‌Meta‌'s withheld $5.3 billion. ‌Meta‌ posted an open letter calling on TikTok and YouTube to implement the same measures. Teens with restrictions on Instagram and Facebook could instead just move over to TikTok and YouTube, and ‌Meta‌ likely doesn't want to be the only company losing out on revenue. ‌Meta‌ has been in a federal trial over the lawsuit, and had it continued, it could have been forced to pay more. California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey were seeking closer to $200 billion in civil penalties, according to Reuters . The settlement came before ‌Meta‌ CEO Mark Zuckerberg was set to testify, but Florida declined to settle and will continue litigation. New Mexico was also uninvolved because it won its own case against ‌Meta‌ earlier this year. Tags: Facebook , Instagram , Meta , TikTok This article, " Meta Agrees to Limit Teens' Time on Facebook and Instagram, Calls on TikTok and YouTube to Match " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview , the experimental browser that was first introduced in March 2016. Apple designed ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ to allow users to test features that are planned for future release versions of the Safari browser. Apple has not provided notes on what's changed in Safari 251. The current ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ release is compatible with machines running macOS Tahoe and macOS Golden Gate , the newest version of macOS. The ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ update is available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences or System Settings to anyone who has downloaded the browser from Apple's website. Complete release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website . Apple's aim with ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while it is designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download and use. This article, " Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 251 With Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
