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Menlo Park-based Meta announced on June 2 the global expansion of its 13+ content settings for teenager accounts on its platforms, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger.
Last October, Meta rolled out the “13+ content setting” for Instagram users between the ages of 13 and 17 in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. This setting filters out content on the platforms that is not age-appropriate for teenagers.
A stricter “Limited Content” setting was also introduced, allowing parents to control the kind of content their children see on Instagram.
Now, the 13+ content setting is being rolled out to all teenage accounts across the world, including Facebook and Messenger accounts, while the Limited Content feature will be available on Facebook and Messenger later this year.
The expanded rollout announcement follows two lawsuits that found Meta liable for damages because of the way its social media platforms interact with younger users.
In March, in a lawsuit filed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Meta was found liable “for misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms and endangering children,” according to the New Mexico Department of Justice. The company was ordered to pay damages of $375 million as a result.
Also in March, in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, Meta was ordered to pay damages of $4.2 million to a plaintiff who claimed that the addictive nature of its social media platforms had adversely impacted her mental health.
Kira Wong O’ Connor, who works with the Youth Safety Policy team at Meta, said that users need to be at least 13 years old to create accounts on Instagram, Facebook, or Messenger.
While signing up, if they declare their age as between 13 and 17 years old, their accounts are automatically put on the 13+ content setting by default.
“The 13+ setting is what we call a hard default,” said Wong O’Connor. “A default that you cannot change unless you get parental or guardian supervision.”
Wong O’Connor explained that if a teen wishes to opt out of the setting, they must designate another adult account on the platform as a parent or guardian account. Then that account, as well as the teen account, must consent to the teen account opting out of the 13+ setting.
However, she said that Meta does not verify the relationship between the parent or guardian account holder and the teen account holder.
Wong O’Connor said that while there is no foolproof way to prevent younger users from lying about their ages to circumvent the 13+ features, Meta is experimenting with AI technology to predict if a user is over 18 years of age.
“A person who is 13 is not using Instagram in the same way that a 20-year-old would be,” said Wong O’Connor. “What is put in your bio? Does it say that you’re in high school? Is there anything else that may indicate you’re under the age of 18? So, these are just some of the signals that we have.”
This story was written by Tanay Gokhale for Bay City News Service.
