Meta settles $18 billion with 29 states over teen safety
Meta just agreed to pay $18 billion to settle with 29 US states over claims it put teens at risk on Instagram and Facebook.
As part of the deal, Meta will roll out new safety rules: think a hard two-hour daily screen time limit, Night Mode that blocks access from midnight to 6am and notifications muted during school hours.
Most of these controls are required to remain in place for 10 years.
New controls, $5.3B TikTok YouTube tie
Teens won't be able to get around the screen time cap by using multiple accounts, and only parents can turn it off.
Feeds will default to nonpersonalized content with like counts hidden, and extreme makeup filters are out for under-18s.
Autoplay can be turned off by parents and teens (so no endless scrolling unless you switch it on), plus there'll be reminders to take breaks after 15 minutes and teens will get prompts at 60 minutes of total daily usage.
Fun fact: $5.3 billion of Meta's payout depends on TikTok and YouTube adding similar protections too.