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Meta Settlement: Teen Instagram & Facebook Changes

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Meta said on Wednesday that it would change how teenagers use Instagram and Facebook as part of a landmark settlement with 47 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories over social media addiction claims. Instagram and Facebook currently allow anyone 13 or older to open accounts. Users under 18 are automatically directed into Teen Accounts, which are set to private by default and limit certain types of harmful content. The settlement is expected to alter the apps further. Meta said new features will be introduced in the next six months, while other changes, like how the company verifies user ages, could take up to a year.

Teenagers will be limited to just two hours a day on Instagram and Facebook, unless a parent goes into their settings to give permission for more time. Young users will also be automatically restricted from using the apps overnight, between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. In addition, Instagram and Facebook notifications will be silenced during school hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For the first time, young users will be able to turn off “autoplay” and switch off the algorithmic, personalized feed. Every time a user under 18 is on Instagram or Facebook for 15 consecutive minutes, that person will receive a prompt on the screen. Meta said it would also disable “like” counts and block teens from using “extreme makeup filters” and filters that mimic cosmetic surgery.

Meta said it would roll out stronger protections against “unwanted contact from strangers” and give teens a new way to report harmful content, pledging to respond to 90 percent of those reports within six hours. Parents will be alerted when their children create new accounts or have interactions with accounts the company deems suspicious. As part of the settlement, Meta said it would invest more in age verification technology to identify which users are teenagers and remove those who it believed were younger than 13.