Meta has agreed to limit teens to just two hours daily on Facebook and Instagram and its pushing competitors to do the same
Meta has reached a landmark settlement imposing sweeping new restrictions on how teens use Facebook and Instagram — and it’s hoping other social media companies will follow suit with similar standards.After the company and state AGs announced the settlement Wednesday morning, Meta posted an open letter to Snap, TikTok and YouTube urging them to join the effort to “support teens and empower parents” and buy-in to their framework — their most comprehensive ever — monitoring social media use.Under the terms of the agreement, teens will be limited to two hours daily on Facebook and Instagram, combined, and be blocked from the platforms between midnight and 6 a.m., though messaging will still be available.Notifications will be silenced during school hours, and stronger age-detection systems will be implemented, along with certain default settings that restrict beauty filters and whether or not likes on a post are visible. “We want to ensure teens benefit from this new industry standard, but we cannot do it alone.
These protections will only be truly effective if we work with our peers — TikTok and YouTube — to put the same measures in place,” the open letter from Meta, which is helmed by Mark Zuckerberg, read.Interestingly, the settlement is structured to create incentives for the 52 state attorneys general to reach similar deals with rival social networks.If Snap, TikTok and YouTube — all of which are currently facing their own challenges from state AGs — adopt the framework Meta has agreed to, Meta will commit to even more onerous restrictions.For instance, if Snap, TikTok, and YouTube all sign on and agree to pay their own settlements, Meta will further limit the amount of time a teen can spend on its social networks.Under the current settlement, the limit is two hours daily, but if other companies agree to the framework, it would decrease to just one hour.Meta also agreed to shell out more settlement money — bumping the amount they’ll ...