Two weeks into a landmark case against Meta, a group of attorneys general have announced that they’ve reached a settlement laying the groundwork for significant changes to the way young users experience Meta platforms.

Youth Access Will Take An Immediate Hit, But Adults Will See A Gradual Shift

The financial penalty is meaningful and doesn’t account for the costs that Meta will incur to overhaul the way the platform works and to actually keep young users off its platforms, but it is only a fraction of Meta’s overall value. Other platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat, with more precarious economics and a higher proportion of younger users, will likely also have to make preemptive changes to how they operate to align with whatever directives Meta is given. It was never likely that any judgment would have killed the social media industry, but changes to come will reduce usage over the long term.

Specific changes to Meta’s apps are required by a consent decree. Features that will now operate by default are strict daily time limits for teens, default blocks of Meta apps at night, hidden like counts, prompts to log off the platform, blocked access to cosmetic filters, and muted notifications during school hours. Voluntary options include turning off the algorithmic feed, turning off autoplay of videos, and additional parental controls. We can see what this looks like in the EU, where Meta offers users an algorithm opt-out and is expanding its ad-free subscription package. Users can expect to see platforms aggressively explore new revenue streams, like TikTok’s test of peer-to-peer payments.

But don’t expect Meta or any other platform to passively let young users slip away: They’re already focusing efforts on ensuring that young people have a clear path into the walled garden via Teen Accounts, which will have to conform to the requirements handed down today but would allow them to retain users currently on their platforms. And counter to Meta’s own estimates, independent experts suggest that young users represent a huge amount of revenue: $11 billion from kids under 18 and $2.1 billion from kids under 13.

Creators Aren’t Prepared For The Headwinds They’re About To Face

Creators who depend on youth interest will ultimately be hit hard on engagement metrics, and that’s not limited to creators who specifically create content for kids. Plenty of creators may not have set out to build a youth audience, but tweens are heavily influenced by creators who are significantly older (average female creator age: 38; male: 43), rapidly accelerating their maturity in brand preferences. This means brand awareness is being formed earlier than traditional models have ever suggested, and brands that have benefited from heavy youth interest via creator marketing should anticipate drops in performance and engagement as that audience becomes less accessible.

Meta is the first to face a lawsuit of this scale, but other platforms have an even higher proportion of young users: YouTube has around 50 million users under 18, and in February of 2025, 17% of YouTube’s audience was made up of kids ages 2–11. Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok average around 18 million users under 18, with Facebook and X showing much lower proportions of young users. Depending on their unique demographics, some creators can expect to see their engagement drop, while brands should carefully look at any new data that becomes available to be certain of whether a creator’s engagement is actually coming from their buying base.

Brands Will Need To Aggressively Diversify Investments To Engage Youth Consumers

Because users under 13 are not officially allowed on any social platform, they’re not available to be specifically targeted by advertisers as it is, and platforms are not required to report age breakdowns of their revenue. But underage users drive billions of dollars in revenue across platforms every year, and are heavy users of in-app purchases and in-app shopping, so platforms and advertisers will feel the effects as they move back to competing for the same pool of adult buyers and have to spend elsewhere to reach younger customers. Eliminating this age bracket will also drop engagement on the platforms overall and significantly change the ability to reach young consumers.

Although youths ages 12–17 currently purchase less frequently than adults — 14% buy online weekly, versus 25% of adults — they are building brand preferences that will drive adult spending. Brands should look at behavior and exposure, not just age, to define when youth audiences become brand-formable. The shift toward owned-audience strategies is already underway, and additional investment in this infrastructure is key for future-proofing a consumer brand.

Since the Meta settlement includes all accounts for users under 18 years old, the short-term impact will need to be made up in other media channels. Young audiences have migrated strongly to streaming (Millennials and Gen Zers are more likely than older generations to watch live sports and entertainment on streaming services), but Millennials (37%) and Gen Zers (31%) are more likely than Gen Xers (24%) to upgrade subscriptions to remove ads — meaning brands must earn attention through relevance, not repetition. In-game advertising, out-of-home, sports sponsorships, and creator partnerships are all strong investments for the next two years.

Social Media’s “Big Tobacco” Moment Is Still To Come

Social media platforms have long claimed the impossibility of building tools that effectively restrict young users from joining the platform. Meta’s statement specifically calls on app stores to take on the responsibility of managing and storing age verification data. Still, Meta removed nearly 750,000 underage accounts in Australia since the country’s under-16 ban passed. While the company argues that AI-based age verification tools are inaccurate, and that adult users will object to requiring government ID to verify their age, the fact is that as AI technology continues to improve and lawmakers are more willing to take action, verification could become a standard step that creates a high enough barrier to reduce youth access and, ultimately, interest.

The real existential threat to Meta — and social media as an industry — is if similar lawsuits succeed. This might be the push Congress needs to reform Section 230. It’s a topic that attracts bipartisan interest — both the left and the right often feel ill-served by the algorithm — as we seek to balance free-speech protections against public health and safety.

Share