In an interview published Oct. 8, 2026, former Facebook safety leader Arturo Béjar described why he raised concerns about Instagram’s response to teen users’ experiences. A California-filed agreement dated Aug. 26, 2026, separately lays out protections for teen users of Instagram and Facebook, with its effective date tied to court entry.
Why Béjar returned to Instagram
Béjar says his daughter and her friends encountered unwanted advances, sexist comments and harassment on Instagram around 2018. He says their experience—and the response to reports about it—prompted him to return to Instagram in 2019 as a well-being consultant.
Béjar had worked at Facebook from 2009 to 2015, leading safety and care work. He returned to Instagram as an independent consultant from 2019 to 2021. In describing his daughter’s experience, he has criticized how the platform handled reports and argued that teens need more effective ways to flag harmful interactions.
The 2021 warning and the tools Béjar says stalled
On Oct. 5, 2021, Béjar emailed Mark Zuckerberg and other senior Facebook executives about safety concerns and survey figures. Among the numbers he shared, 24.4% of Instagram users aged 13–15 said they had received unwanted advances in the previous seven days, and 21.8% said they had been bullied during that period. Béjar attributed the figures to his team’s survey work.
Béjar has described a proposed tool that would let a teen flag a conversation as an unwanted advance. He has also said that product reviews stalled tools intended to improve teen well-being. Those accounts explain the focus of his criticism: the design of reporting and feedback options, as well as whether proposed tools reached users.
What the California-filed agreement describes
A California-filed agreement, dated Aug. 26, 2026, describes provisions for teen users aged 13–17 on Instagram and Facebook in the settling states. The agreement’s definition of covered platforms includes specified exclusions, including direct-messaging features. It defines the effective date as the first business day after the court enters the consent judgment.
| Provision | Terms described in the agreement | Scope and conditions |
| Daily use, Phase I | A default limit of two cumulative hours per day across covered platforms | Longform content and messaging are excluded; content accessed through settings counts toward the limit. |
| Night access and notifications | Default access block from midnight to 6 a.m.; push notifications off from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. | Times use the device’s local time. Urgent account-security and platform-integrity notifications are excepted; a supervising parent may change notification settings. |
| School hours | Notifications off from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, from Aug. 15 to June 15 | A supervising parent may adjust the hours. Exceptions include notifications related to messaging, account security or platform integrity. |
| Breaks and session notices | Default pauses at 60 and 90 minutes of cumulative daily use, plus a notice after a 15-minute continuous session | The agreement calls for these provisions within four months of its effective date. Teens and parents may make settings more restrictive; less restrictive settings require parental approval. |
| Reports of potentially harmful content | In-app reporting options and a process designed to provide a decision within six hours in at least 90% of specified reports | The target applies to reports submitted in English or Spanish. |
| Daily use, Phase II | Up to 60 minutes per day on each covered platform, with a maximum of 120 minutes cumulatively | This phase depends on the agreement’s industry-wide-adoption condition. |
The agreement describes different controls for different situations: a combined daily-use limit, overnight access settings, school-hour notification rules and ways to report potentially harmful content. Its limits and response target are terms in the filed agreement, subject to the stated conditions and effective-date provision.
Meta’s response and the agreement’s terms
Meta has denied wrongdoing in the multistate case. The company has pointed to Teen Accounts and other safety tools as part of its work on teen safety. The agreement states that the settlement does not constitute an admission by Meta of liability, wrongdoing or a violation of law.
