UK Tells Meta It Expects British Children to Get the American Protections

The UK government expects Meta to give children in Britain the same protections it agreed to in the United States, as part of a court settlement that could cost the company up to $18bn.

Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden said he did not want young people in the US to have "a higher rate of protection" than those in Britain, after Meta settled a lawsuit brought by dozens of US states accusing it of harming children.

What the settlement includes

Alongside the payments, Meta agreed to a default daily time limit of two hours for users under 18, liftable only by a parent; a default block between midnight and 6am for under-18s; and default blocks on notifications overnight and during the school day.

The two-hour limit is not part of the UK's current plans, which centre on banning social media for under-16s.

The awkward comparison

Analysts note that most of the agreed measures fall within changes Meta has already been required to make elsewhere. But some of the US restrictions have no UK equivalent — which is the uncomfortable part for a government that has presented itself as the stricter regulator.

Britain chose to legislate access: under-16s off the platforms entirely from 2027. American state attorneys general litigated design, and extracted defaults that apply to every teenager who remains on the service.

For 16 and 17-year-olds — who will still be using Instagram under the UK ban — the American settlement currently offers more protection than British law does. That is the gap McFadden is asking Meta to close voluntarily, because the Online Safety Act does not give him a way to require it.