Children in the UK will not be given the additional protection measures Meta has pledged to roll out in the US after reaching an eye-watering settlement in America.
A $18bn (£13.24bn) deal has been agreed with the Facebook and Instagram owner Meta following claims brought by 29 US states that argued the platforms harmed children.
On top of the financial settlement, Meta has guaranteed that it will introduce significant protections to children and teen accounts on their apps.
us news
Meta agrees to pay up to $17bn to settle social media case
Meta has reached a settlement with US states and territories to resolve a court case related to child safety.
The agreement will require the social media giant to pay up to $17bn (£12.5bn).
What has Meta agreed to?
Meta agreed to establish safeguards for teenage users, including daily usage limits and night-time blocks nationwide in the US.
This is the first time Meta has been forced to change how its platforms function.
As part of the settlement, the company denies wrongdoing.
What happened at the trial?
- It was alleged the company had violated numerous federal and state privacy laws for children.
- The states suing Meta claimed it used its platforms “to ensnare youth and teens”, and ignored the damage they did to the “wellbeing of America’s youth”.
- After the settlement was announced, District of Columbia attorney general Brian Schwalb called it a “monumental public health victory”.
What did Meta say?
Today, we are announcing an agreement with a bipartisan group of 52 attorneys general across US states, territories, and the District of Columbia, building on our long-standing efforts to empower parents and support teens
Calls for TikTok to follow
- The company said TikTok and YouTube should also implement the same safety features for their younger users.
- “Our new Time Limit commitments, Night Mode features and usage limits during school hours set the right path forward for our whole industry, but this framework will only work if all our peers join us,” Meta’s chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney, said.
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The subtle eye signals your dog may be sending you
Researchers have found that dogs blink more frequently when they see their owners doing so, which may mean that they are communicating more than just a need to momentarily close their eyes.
What did the study find?
Writing in the journal , Dr Chiara Canori from the University of Parma described how 35 different breeds were shown two videos with three people in them, one of them being their owner. In one video the humans blinked every three seconds and in the other they did not blink.
The researchers found that the dogs blinked more when the humans did, and this increased when shown their owner.
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What do the blinks mean?
Previous research has found that dogs turn on puppy eyes when humans look at them and can distinguish happy human faces from other expressions.
However, there may not be a huge amount of meaning behind dogs’ blinks. Canori said: “As of today… we cannot say that a dog deliberately blinks in order to convey a particular message. It may provide subtle feedback about attention or engagement.”
Blinking can be influenced by social context
Our study does not show that every time a dog blinks it is deliberately ‘saying’ something (…) What our work suggests is that this apparently simple and automatic behaviour can nevertheless be influenced by the social context
Dr Chiara Canori, University of parma
Downpours and thunderstorms will continue to bring the risk of flooding to parts of the UK on Wednesday and Thursday.
A yellow warning for thunderstorms is in place in large areas of the country from 3am until 10pm on Wednesday, then again from 6am until 10pm on Thursday.
Where does the warning cover?
The Met Office warning covers much of the Midlands, parts of northern, eastern and southern England as well as the far east of Wales.
A yellow warning means severe weather is possible and could cause travel disruption.
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Wednesday’s weather warning
Thursday’s weather warning
Rain to fall after prolonged drought
Many areas of the country have recently experienced drought, with the next few days likely to bring the wettest weather in many weeks.
- The punishing heat has made the ground hard, meaning the water cannot soak in and flash flooding is a real concern.
Scientists find ‘window of opportunity’ to start to cut dementia risk
A large new study of postmenopausal women in the UK has found that a common treatment for menopausal symptoms may significantly lower the risk of dementia.
What you need to know
The study, led by experts from the University of East Anglia and University of Exeter, found taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was associated with a 10 per cent reduced risk of all dementia and 16 per cent reduction in risk of Alzheimer’s disease specifically.
- The team discovered that starting treatment between the ages of 46-56 “conferred the greatest benefit”.
A closer look at the results of the study
The research analysed more than 183,000 postmenopausal women taking part in the UK Biobank study.
- An average 13-year follow-up found that almost 4,000 of them were diagnosed with dementia.
- After examining information on the dementia diagnoses, they found that those who started HRT between the ages of 46-50 had a 13 per cent reduced risk of dementia.
- Those who started taking HRT when they were aged 51-56 had a 23 per cent reduced risk.
- Women who took HRT after surgical menopause had a 26 per cent lower risk.
What else did the study find?
The study also found that women who naturally had lower exposure to oestrogen over their lifetime appeared to have a 16 per cent lower chance of dementia after taking HRT.
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Why nicotine vapes are still best chance to quit smoking
Smokers are more likely to quit their habit by using vapes compared to conventional methods such as nicotine gum and patches, according to a new study.
Quit rates are higher
The Cochrane Review examined 80 studies involving almost 30,000 people and found that quit rates were higher with vape use, with it leading to 61 per cent increased odds that a quit attempt would be successful after six months.
- That means that eight to 10 out of 100 people using vaping to quite smoking might succeed compared to six of 100 people using nicotine-replacement therapy.
Providing vapes can help
Researchers looked at behavioural support – offered through advice and counselling – and found that people who were also given nicotine vapes were more likely to quit.
The expert view
We have very strong evidence that regulated nicotine e-cigarettes are substantially less harmful than smoking. Based on the consistency of the findings here, it’s clear that they are a proven and viable option for people wishing to quit cigarettes
Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, senior author of the review from University of Massachusetts Amherst
How shingles jab ‘could slash heart risks’
The shingles vaccine currently used by the NHS may slash the risk of heart failure, heart disease and stroke, according to a new study.
What you need to know
Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash and the jab that protects against it – Shingrix – is available on the NHS for people aged 65-70, people aged 70-79 (as part of a catch-up program) and for those over 18 with a severely weakened immune system.
Experts say that if all over-60s had the jab, it could prevent tens of thousands of deaths.
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The study
The NHS switched to Shingrix from the former vaccine, Zostavax, three years ago. Researchers from the University of Oxford compared the risk of stroke, ischemic heart disease or heart failure between the two vaccines over seven years.
- They analysed data from more than 70,000 people and found that up to seven years after the jab, people who had Shingrix lived 9 per cent longer without developing a cardiovascular disease.
more on health from the i paper
Children’s eyesight is getting worse. This is what parents can do about it
The rise in short-sightedness is not directly caused by too much screen time, but a related change in children’s behaviour. Fortunately it can be reversed.
Dolly Parton – a life in pictures
Dolly Parton died on Tuesday at the age of 80. Tributes from around the world have honoured the country music superstar, who passed away following a “brief battle with cancer”.
The singer was best known for her genre-defining hits including “9 To 5”, “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene”.
Born into a musical family in 1946
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in 1946, the fourth of 12 children, into a poor farming family who lived in a one-bedroom cabin in Tennessee.
Her father, Robert Lee Parton, was a tobacco farmer. Parton spoke about her mother, Avie Lee, singing folk songs all the time, and her aunt played the guitar.
Country star’s unique style
During her teens, Parton began modelling herself on a local character known as the “town tramp”.
The lady wore bright red nail polish, low-cut tops and high heels – young Dolly thought she was beautiful.
A musical powerhouse
Despite being unable to read sheet music, Parton was proficient on several instruments including the banjo, harp, piano and saxophone. She had her first No 1 hit with the song “Joshua” in 1971.
- It was the theme song that Parton wrote for the 1980 movie 9 to 5 that fully propelled her to stardom.
A nearly 60-year marriage
Parton maintained a deeply committed, nearly 60-year marriage to Carl Dean until his death in 2025. “Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared,” Parton said when he died.
Dean remained out of the public eye, choosing to focus on his asphalt-paving business in Nashville. The couple had no children.
Parton’s life in pictures
These changes, which include daily time limits that can’t be turned off and muted notifications during school hours, will only be automatically applied to the accounts of those under 18 in “participating US states and territories”.
It means that young people in the UK will not be included in this raft of new safety measures. The Government said it is “following developments closely”.
Meta also pledged to continue to ensure only age-appropriate content is shown, stop unwanted contact from strangers, make it easy for teens to report concerning content and to block the ability for teens to add filters to their photos to make it look like they have had cosmetic surgery.
The tech giant says the new pledges are “building on our longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens” and are billing the move as setting the “new industry standard”.
British children and teens using Facebook and Instagram currently have some protections in place already, with “Teen Accounts” which limits who can contact teens and places restrictions on the content they see.
The protections from Meta require a user to be honest about their age if they are a child, although protections are in place that requires a user to submit ID or a video selfie if the system detects suspicious behaviour suggesting the user is lying about their age.
Children in the UK are also now protected by the Online Safety Act, which is being enforced by media regulator Ofcom.
It means that social media giants can be pursued if they are found to be putting children at risk online, including not taking adequate measures to prevent young people from viewing harmful content, including suicide and eating disorder posts.
“Under the Online Safety Act, platforms must minimise children’s exposure to violent material and content promoting dangerous challenges,” Ofcom said, after harmful content glamorising reckless driving in the UK were found across different platforms following two high-speed crashes.
The regulator launched an investigation into TikTok‘s compliance with its child safety duties in July and said “we’ve shown we’ll take action if evidence suggests companies are falling short.”
But many campaigners say not enough is being done to protect children from online harms, with some calling for a complete ban on children under 16 using social media. The previous prime minister Keir Starmer announced that all British under-16s will be banned from major social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.
A UK Government spokesperson said: “While this is a matter for Meta and the US courts, we are following developments closely.”
They emphasised that the Online Safety Act requires platforms to protect users under 18 from harmful content and said “we are already taking furthersteps to promote British children’s wellbeing and protect them from online harms by introducing a social media ban for under 16s next year.”
The added: “We are also taking action on harmful features and addictive functionalities like limiting excess screentime and infinite scroll.”
An investigation by The i Paper in January 2025, after the Act was brought in but before it was fully enforced, found content designed to amplify feelings of depression and anger were repeatedly pushed to a social media profile set up for a 13-year-old boy even though he wasn’t searching for such content.
What safety changes has Meta promised for children in the USA?
Meta has laid out 13 pledges that are set to be rolled out. It says they are “pending judicial approval” and will automatically apply to under-18s on Instagram and Facebook “in participating US states and territories”.
The tech giant states the “majority of the terms are required to remain in place for 10 years”.
Some features, including sleep time, study time and time limits, will not cover direct messages. Meta says this is to “allow teens to stay connected with friends and family”.
- Time limits: A default daily time limit of two hours that can only be overridden by a parent, with that time covering use of both Facebook and Instagram. It will also encompass if a child has multiple accounts on those platforms.
- Sleep time: Apps will be blocked between midnight and 6am.
- Study time: Limits to the types of push notifications sent during school hours.
- Teens will be notified after 15 minutes of continuous screentime and once they have spent a total of 60 and 90 minutes on the apps.
- No likes: The number of likes and reactions on posts will be hidden by default.
- No filters: Child users will not be able to edit their photos to look like they have “extreme make up” on.
- Option for no autoplay: Teen accounts can opt to stop videos from starting automatically.
- Option for no algorithms: There will be an option for feeds not to be personalised by the apps’ algorithms. This means the rolling suggested content on the app will not be determined by Meta’s technology, which is designed to show posts that have been calculated to be of interest to the user.
- Age checks: Meta already says it actively tries to remove underage accounts from their apps, but has now pledged to invest “in even stronger technology to proactively catch accounts that may belong to under-13s”, as well as steps to identify accounts that may be between the ages of 13 and 17.
- Boost for parents: New parental controls will be added to existing support, including notifying parents when a teen links a secondary account and alerting them to interactions with suspicious accounts.
Meta also pledged to continue to ensure only age-appropriate content is shown, stop unwanted contact from strangers, make it easy for teens to report concerning content and to block the ability for teens to add filters to their photos to make it look like they have had cosmetic surgery.