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Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has been hit with a massive settlement of up to $18 billion, plus another $945 million in three separate fines, over findings that link its platforms to social media addiction in children. This is down significantly from the original figure of $1.4 trillion sought by California and 28 other states. Lawyers for the states involved corrected this to $200 billion, but it looks like Meta will pay around 10% of that so far, and it’ll be paid out across 10 years between the states involved.
The social media conglomerate must now make changes to its platforms to prevent social media addiction. On top of improving detection systems to know who is an underage user, these changes include a two-hour time limit across both Facebook and Instagram, which can be disabled if the parent gives permission. According to Meta (via TechCrunch), it will be able to detect users trying to evade the time limit with multiple accounts. Another facet of time management being introduced is “Night Mode,” turned on by default, so that young users won’t be able to access apps between midnight and 6 a.m., although direct messaging will remain available.
A lot of the changes come down to timing, as the Facebook company will also block push notifications (but not direct messages or alerts) from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on school days. Additional prompts will also appear every 15 minutes, up from the 60 minutes that occur on teen accounts now.
Instagram and Facebook give teens more control
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A major part of the lawsuit comes from Meta’s manipulated algorithms that power feeds, intended to keep users glued to their screens for longer by delivering known content that will keep them engaged. This is also built on Meta’s mass data harvesting that it does once you agree to tracking data. Teens will now be able to choose a non-regulated feed, permanently. On Instagram, for instance, the feed can be set to chronological, but will default to Meta’s personalized feed on relaunch. This will then only show followed content.
Another method of cutting down addiction rates in young users is turning off autoplay. Parents will be able to turn off autoplay, which has been described as requiring a more “deliberate action,” to engage with the app. One of the last elements being added to the Meta suite is that likes and reaction figures have been hidden and would require parental control to be turned back on for underage users.
Meta has called on other social media giants, TikTok and YouTube, to also implement the same changes it is being forced to do. TikTok has rejected the notion, but legal experts claim that it, YouTube, and Snapchat are all potential targets if lawsuits get drummed up again.
