Meta to Introduce New Safety Measures for Teens on Social Platforms
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has reached an agreement with attorneys general across the United States to implement robust safety measures for teenage users of its platforms. As part of this settlement, which arises from a lawsuit that involved 51 US states and territories, Meta will introduce a series of protective features designed to improve the online experience for young users and ensure their safety.
State-Wide Impact with Exceptions
These new measures will be introduced across the United States, with New Mexico and Florida being exceptions due to ongoing legal and legislative matters. Texas has separately negotiated a similar agreement with Meta. The settlement requires many of the newly established protections to be maintained for a minimum duration of ten years.
Key Features of the Settlement
- Non-Personalized Feed: Within four months, teens will have the option to view a non-personalized feed that isn’t controlled by Meta’s recommendation algorithms. This setting can also be managed by parents to become a default option.
- Age Verification: Meta will enhance systems to verify user age, ensuring those under 13 are excluded, and providing specific protections for users aged 13 to 17. New users who haven’t been previously assessed will have teen protections by default. The age assurance system will be subject to an independent audit.
- Time Limit: Facebook and Instagram usage will be capped at two hours daily for teens, though parents can override this setting. Time engaged in certain activities, like watching long videos, will not count towards this limit, which refreshes each day at midnight.
- Usage Alerts: New features will notify teens every 15 minutes of continuous scrolling, and again at 60 and 90 minutes, to discourage excessive use. These alerts can be adjusted by parental controls.
- Nighttime and School Restrictions: Teens will be blocked from posting or viewing most content between midnight and 6AM, with exceptions for messaging and settings access. During school hours, 8AM to 3PM, most notifications will be muted by default unless adjusted by parents.
- Autoplay Control and Visibility of Likes: Teens can disable autoplay to manually control content viewing. Additionally, likes and reactions will not be visible by default on teen posts.
- Controlled Access to Filters: Access to certain beauty filters will be limited, continuing Meta’s restriction on cosmetic surgery filters while still allowing fantasy character effects.
Meta promises to uphold existing safety standards by ensuring private accounts for teens and restricting potentially suspicious adult interactions. Content with adult themes will remain hidden from young users.
Financial and Collaborative Efforts
As part of the settlement, Meta is required to pay $17.1 billion to the states over a ten-year period. However, Meta has suggested that only $5.3 billion of this amount will be disbursed if platforms like TikTok and YouTube do not adopt similar protections and pay equivalent settlements. Meta emphasises the need for industry collaboration to effectively safeguard teens online.
Reporting based on coverage first published by theverge.com.