Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday that Meta Platforms Inc. will pay the state more than $1 billion and add new default limits for young users on Facebook and Instagram.
According to the Office of the Attorney General, the money is intended for youth mental health services, crisis resources, digital literacy programs, after-school initiatives and grants for Texas schools. Paxton’s office said the company must also tighten age checks and put a default two-hour daily time limit on teen accounts.
Notifications will be off by default during school hours unless a parent changes the setting, the attorney general’s office said. Likes and reactions will be hidden by default to reduce social comparison. Meta will also add a nighttime mode that, by default, restricts notifications and other features for children during certain overnight hours.
🚨BREAKING NEWS: I just secured over $1 billion for Texas from Meta in a historic settlement to protect kids online. pic.twitter.com/OveaonfESq
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) August 26, 2026
“This is a historic settlement and a major win for the safety of Texas children,” Paxton said in a statement released by his office. “Not only will Meta pay over $1 billion to Texas, but the company will also implement significant new safety features to better protect children’s precious minds and well-being on its platforms.”
Paxton’s office said this is the third settlement of more than $1 billion he has reached with a major technology company, following a $1.4 billion biometric-data case against Meta and a $1.375 billion privacy settlement with Google.
The Texas announcement came the same day Meta said it had reached a broader, bipartisan agreement with other state attorneys general. In a company post, Meta said participating states would get default two-hour daily limits teens cannot turn off without a parent, muted school-hour notifications, hidden like counts and a default overnight block on core feed features. Meta said direct messaging is excluded from some of those time and night limits.
Reporting from national outlets, including Ars Technica, described Texas’s payment as a separate deal from a larger multistate package that could total about $18 billion. Florida’s attorney general publicly rejected that wider settlement.
Parents in Texas will still control several of the new settings. Paxton’s office said Meta will continue limiting age-inappropriate content and supporting parental supervision tools already on the apps.
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