Meta is about to make dramatic changes to Instagram and Facebook as part of a historic legal settlement.
The company has been sued by 29 state attorneys general in the US, who accused it of knowingly damaging the mental wellbeing of the young people who use its platforms.
Now, Meta has agreed to settle that case, though it has not admitted any wrongdoing. That settlement includes a huge fine against the company – and deep changes to how it operates its platforms.
As part of the settlement, Meta will pay at least $12.1 billion to resolve the lawsuits. It may be forced to pay another $5 billion – taking the total settlement to $17.1 billion – depending on future action against other social media companies.
But the same settlement also requires Meta to bring new blocks, features and changes to Instagram and Facebook that are designed to limit the harm they could do to children. Some of the same changes could come to other platforms – such as Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube – in the future.
Here are the biggest changes that Meta has agreed to make across its platforms to settle the case:
- Time limits for children on Instagram and Facebook. Meta will be forced to limit young people’s use of its platforms to two hours each day. After 15 minutes, children will also be prompted to take a break to stop endless scrolling. The limits will be in effect for five years – and if Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube agree to similar terms, the limit will drop to an hour and last for 10 years.
- Nighttime blocks. Children will be banned from accessing feeds on Instagram and Facebook between midnight and 6am, and notifications will be blocked between 10pm and 7am.
- School-time limits. Push notifications will also be blocked on weekdays between 8am and 3pm, during the school year.
- Better age checks. Meta will be forced to introduce more robust age verification measures to ensure that young children are not using the platforms and posing as adults.
- Improved content controls. Instagram and Facebook will be required to introduce stronger safeguards against potentially harmful content, such as posts about bullying, eating disorders, suicide and self-harm.
- Stronger and easier parental controls. Meta is required to add better and more simple ways for adults to monitor and limit the online activity of the young people they look after.
- Blocks on ‘social comparison’ features. Tools such as beauty filters and the “like” counts on posts – both of which have been accused of damaging young people’s wellbeing by encouraging comparison and low self-esteem – will be banned or limited for children.
All of the changes will be assessed by an independent auditor, to ensure that Meta is implementing them as required. That process will be overseen by the 29 states that brought the legal action.
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