Meta’s $18B child-safety deal hinges on age verification tech that doesn’t work well

Meta agreed to an $18 billion settlement with 52 state attorneys general, obligating the company to overhaul how minors use Instagram and Facebook, including a default two-hour daily screen-time limit, 15-minute usage prompts, overnight blocks, muted school-hour notifications, and hidden “like” counts. The deal hinges on deploying age-verification technology—biometric scans, ID checks, or behavioral analysis—that experts say currently performs poorly, raising privacy concerns while the settlement’s financial impact is spread over ten years.