What The Tech: Changes to Facebook, Instagram after Meta lawsuit
BY JAMEY TUCKER, Consumer Tech Reporter
Facebook and Instagram have made a number of changes in recent years aimed at protecting younger users. But a proposed multibillion-dollar settlement could bring some of the most significant restrictions yet.
Meta has agreed to pay as much as $16.68 billion to settle claims brought by states accusing the company of designing Facebook and Instagram in ways that encouraged compulsive use among children and teenagers.
The settlement still needs approval from a federal judge. If approved, it would also require Meta to make major changes to how teen accounts work.
Teen accounts would get a two-hour daily limit
Anyone under 18 would have a default two-hour daily time limit on Facebook and Instagram. That is two hours combined across both platforms, not two hours on each app.
If a teenager wants to continue using Facebook or Instagram after reaching the limit, a parent would have to give permission. That is a major difference from many of the screen-time tools Meta already offers. Instead of relying on parents or teenagers to turn restrictions on, many of the new safeguards would beenabled automatically.
What if a teenager simply creates another account?
That is one of the biggest challenges Meta will have to solve.
Under the proposed settlement, Meta agreed to use what it calls “age assurance” technology to identify accounts likely belonging to users under 18. If Meta determines that multiple accounts belong to the same teenager, the time spent on those accounts would count toward the same daily limit.
Exactly how well that will work remains to be seen.
Instagram and Facebook generally do not require someone opening a new account to prove their age by uploading an ID or taking an age-verification selfie.
Instead, Meta says it uses technology to analyze signals from an account that may indicate whether the user is actually a teenager. Age detection remains one of the most difficult parts of enforcing social-media rules for minors, especially because Instagram allows users to maintain multiple accounts.
Facebook and Instagram would have an overnight curfew
Teen accounts would also be blocked by default from using Facebook and Instagram between midnight and 6 a.m. Parents would have to approve turning off that restriction. Notifications would also be silenced overnight and during designated school hours.
The goal is to reduce the late-night scrolling and constant notifications that critics say can keep teenagers engaged with social media when they should be sleeping or concentrating on school.
Likes, filters and personalized feeds would change too
Teenagers could notice several other changes. Meta would stop displaying the number of likes and reactions on posts to teen users. Some cosmetic-procedure filters would be blocked. Teenagers would also be given the option to use a feed that is not personalized by Meta’s recommendation algorithm.
Those changes are aimed at concerns that social-media features can encourage teenagers to compare themselves with others or keep scrolling through content selected specifically to hold their attention.
The biggest change may be what parents do not have to do
Facebook and Instagram already include parental controls and screen-time tools. The major difference under this agreement is that parents would not necessarily have to know those tools exist, find them in the settings and turn them on.
Many of the protections would already be activated on teen accounts. The settlement still needs court approval, and Meta has denied wrongdoing.
If approved, some of the biggest changes Facebook and Instagram have ever made for teenagers could begin rolling out within months.
