Meta Implements Strict New Child Safety Measures Following $18 Billion Settlement

POLICY WIRE — Oakland, California — Meta Platforms has reached a groundbreaking agreement with 48 U.S. states, committing to pay up to $18 billion and implement enhanced child safety features on Facebook and Instagram.

The settlement, announced on Wednesday, mandates Meta to fortify its age verification processes to prevent children under 13 from accessing its platforms and to ensure teens have age-appropriate accounts.

Additionally, Meta will enforce a daily usage limit of two hours for users under 18, restrict app access from midnight to 6 a.m., and conceal “like” counts, among other modifications.

These new protections, set to be in effect for a decade, are exclusive to the United States.

Although the changes represent the most comprehensive child safety measures Meta has ever adopted, critics argue they are insufficient to address the complex issues at hand.

Arturo Béjar, a former Meta engineering director, described the settlement as a “significant milestone” but warned parents not to consider Instagram safe for children just yet.

Béjar highlighted a critical flaw in the agreement, noting that it allows Meta to define what constitutes harm.

He emphasized the need for Meta to tackle the impact of content recommendations on teens, which he believes can be addictive.

Under the settlement, Meta has agreed to enhance its age verification technology, utilizing both its own and third-party tools, with regular external audits to assess its effectiveness.

The agreement also sets specific targets for reducing false positive rates, where minors are incorrectly identified as over 18.

If a user is identified as under 13 and removed from the platforms, Meta will also verify the ages of their friends.

Critics have long faulted Meta for many of its safety features that users must manually enable.

However, several safeguards in the settlement, such as the two-hour time limit and night mode, will be activated by default.

Other features, like disabling video autoplay or displaying posts in chronological order, will require manual activation.

Josh Golin, executive director of the online safety nonprofit Fairplay, expressed disappointment that the settlement did not disable recommendation algorithms by default, which he believes connect kids to predators and lead them down dangerous paths.

Questions about default settings arose during the trial when a lawyer for the states suing Meta questioned Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s head, about the low adoption rate of the “take a break” feature among teens.

Despite the introduction of separate teen accounts in 2024, which made the feature the default setting for teenage users, many teens chose to ignore the notification.

Some researchers have found that many past protections implemented by Meta have been ineffective or did not work as advertised.

Yaël Eisenstat, director of policy and impact for the Cybersafety Research Center, cautioned that it is too early to determine if all desired changes will be realized.

However, she acknowledged the settlement as a monumental step in demonstrating that alternative approaches are feasible.

Eisenstat, who previously worked at Meta, criticized the company for ignoring internal advice and prioritizing profit over user safety.

She stressed that while the settlement shows technically feasible options for a safer platform, much work remains to be done, requiring a combination of technical solutions, market forces, and government regulation.

The settlement, which also includes the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, awaits judicial approval.

Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)