Meta Platforms has recently reached a settlement worth up to $18 billion with 29 U.S. states over child safety on Facebook and Instagram. As part of the agreement, the company will implement new restrictions on how children use its platforms.
The proposed settlement which requires court approval would see the company pay around $12.7 billion to the coalition of states in annual instalments over a 10-year period. The remaining amount will only be released if rival platforms YouTube and TikTok agree to similar restrictions on how children use those platforms.
Under the agreement, Meta will introduce a two-hour daily limit across Facebook and Instagram for users under 18-years old, excluding messaging. Underage users will also receive reminders after 60- and 90-minutes of daily use, with additional prompts during sessions lasting longer than 15-minutes.
Teenagers will be blocked from accessing the platforms between midnight and 6am, with further restrictions on push notifications between 10pm and 7am, and during school hours.
Alongside enhanced age-assurance measures, Meta will allow underage users to opt for non-algorithmic feeds showing posts chronologically from accounts they follow, while parents using its supervision tools can set this as the default.
The platforms will also hide like counts and other post reaction numbers for young users, with new in-app tools allowing them to report inappropriate, offensive, unwanted or illegal content.
Industry peers
Meta said most of the restrictions would remain in place for 10-years, while the two-hour daily limit and overnight block will initially apply for five-years. If TikTok and YouTube adopt similar measures, the restrictions would extend to 10-years and restrict users under the age of 18-years to 60 minutes per platform each day, with all push notifications permanently disabled.
New York attorney general Letitia James stated: “We cannot allow social media companies to continue fuelling the growing rates of low self-esteem, isolation and depression among our youth”. She added Meta’s “comprehensive restrictions” are “a major step towards breaking the cycle of social media addiction” which “sets a standard of reforms for all social media platforms”.
Meta chief legal officer C.J. Mahoney added “the framework we’ve negotiated will empower parents to easily manage how their children access our platforms”, but warned “its success depends on all other social media platforms following Meta’s lead”.
As a result of the settlement, Meta expects to record around $10 billion in legal expenses in Q3, a charge the company did not account for in the guidance it provided following its Q2 results.
Filed in October 2023, the case accused Meta of designing features “to entice, engage and ultimately ensnare youth and teens”, and “ignored the risks these platforms have posed to the mental and physical wellbeing of America’s youth”.
Source: Mobile World Live
Image Credit: Meta
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