Under the terms of its $18 billion settlement to resolve claims brought by 29 U.S. states over children’s safety, Meta on Wednesday agreed to sweeping changes designed to restrict minors’ access to Instagram and Facebook. The changes include a daily time limit, a restrictive “Night Mode,” autoplay controls, and more.
The social media giant says the new protections will automatically apply to users under 18 on Instagram and Facebook in participating U.S. states and territories, pending judicial approval. That the majority of these controls are required to remain in place for 10 years.
One of the most notable changes is that Meta plans to implement a daily two-hour time limit for teenagers on its platform. The limit can only be disabled with parental permission, and once the limit is reached, teens will be locked out of Facebook and Instagram.
Meta says the limit will be cumulative across Facebook and Instagram, which means that time spent on both apps will count toward the two-hour total. The limit will also be applied if Meta detects someone is using multiple accounts.
The company also said kids will be able to choose a non-algorithmic feed that isn’t personalized by its recommendation systems as their default. Currently, users have been able to temporarily see a chronological feed on Instagram and Facebook, but can’t set it as their default feed. Instead, the app pops up the algorithmic feeds each time you open the app. Now, parents and guardians can set their teenaged kids’ default experience to a non-personalized feed.
