Meta Agrees to Implement Strict Child Safety Measures for Teens Following Settlement

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Meta Agrees to Implement Strict Child Safety Measures for Teens Following Settlement
Photo: CNET
tech· A press review of 3 outlets

  1. Meta just agreed to make sweeping changes for teens as part of a child safety settlement reached with attorneys general across the US. Under the agreement, Meta must apply new safeguards across Instagram and Facebook that will change how teens interact with the social media platforms, as well as restrict their use during certain times.

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    CNET

    In its post, Meta outlined a series of changes to both Instagram and Facebook that will apply only to those under 18. Most of the changes were required as part of the lawsuit settlement, notably the creation of daily limits and night mode controls for teens, as well as the adoption of age-assurance measures to help prevent cheating the system. As part of the agreement, Meta has denied any wrongdoing.

    ZDNet

    Meta says it's keeping the default setting that makes teen accounts private on Facebook and Instagram and restricts suspicious adults from contacting teens. It will also be harder for those adults to find, follow, and interact with teens.

  2. During this time, teens can’t post on either platform or view feeds, stories, reels, or scroll through their Explore page. Teens will still be able to access messaging features and account settings at night, and parents, again, can adjust the setting. Muted notifications during the school day : Teens won’t receive push notifications by default between 8AM and 3PM, except for “direct messages and alerts about their account security or safety,” unless the setting is changed by a parent. Toggle off autoplay : Teens will get the option to turn off autoplay, which means they’ll have to tap or swipe their screen to view content, rather than Instagram or Facebook playing it as soon as it appears on their screen.

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    ZDNet

    Muted push notifications There's now a much smaller window when push notifications will come through to a teen account. Push notifications will be silenced from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and during school hours from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. During those hours, Meta says the only alerts that will come through are direct messages and alerts about account security or safety.

  3. Meta is pressuring its peers to get involved as well. The last 30% of that money (just over $5 billion) will go to states only if YouTube and TikTok implement child safety measures and commit the same amount of money to similar programs.

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    The Verge

    Meta is calling on TikTok and YouTube to make similar changes, saying “these protections will only be truly effective if we work with our peers.” It must pay $17.1 billion to states over 10 years, but says it will pay $5.3 billion of this sum only if TikTok and YouTube pay the same amount, as well as implement a daily time limit for teens, add restrictions at night, and roll out age assurance measures.

From the margins

3 details only one outlet reported

Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.

  1. 01 CNET

    Meta is adding age-appropriate content restrictions, but it remains vague on the details. While using movie ratings and parent feedback to build filters, the company fails to explain how this applies to social media posts or provide examples of blocked content.

  2. 02 ZDNet

    The lawsuit, which alleges the tech company purposefully designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to minors, misled the public about how safe the platforms were, and illegally harvested private data from teen users, was brought by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from nearly every US state.

  3. 03 The Verge

    The settlement stems from a nationwide lawsuit alleging Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snap failed to protect children and made their platforms “addictive” by design. A group of 51 US states and territories signed the agreement, including New York, New Jersey, California, Nevada, South Carolina, Washington, Illinois, and many more. Most of these protections are required to remain in place for at least 10 years.

Assembled from 3 corroborated claims drawn from 3 independent outlets. Every passage above is taken verbatim — Dorothy doesn't paraphrase or summarize.

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Sources (3)

  • zdnet
  • cnet
  • verge

Original Articles (3)

Consumer What Meta’s All-New Social Media Guidelines Promise to Change for Teen Users — CNET
Enterprise How Facebook and Instagram will change after Meta's $18B settlement - and where the money is going — ZDNet
Consumer All the ways Instagram and Facebook are changing for teens — The Verge