Column: Meta, Under Duress, Finally Does the Right Thing for Teens
My deep skepticism over Meta’s proposed settlement began to lift — though not completely — as I made my way through the details of the alterations it has promised to make to its apps like Facebook and Instagram: daily time limits; no notifications during school hours; autoplay disabling; non-algorithmic feeds; a midnight to 6 a.m. lockout, to pick a few. Even better are age-gating measures to block underage users and further protect teens. Other promises include an end to toxic “beautifying” filters that should have never seen the light of day, and efforts to limit the dopamine effect of “likes” by hiding them. One thought I had reading these changes was simply: Can I enable them for my account, too?
Meta, Under Duress, Finally Does the Right Thing for Teensbloomberg.comFinally, what some said could never be done has happened: Meta Platforms Inc. has been forced to make real changes to protect the millions of young people who use its products. Make no mistake, while the amount that the company agreed to pay to settle a lawsuit brought by several states — up to $18 billion — is large, it is dwarfed in significance by the long-tail positive effects this so-called Big Tobacco moment will have on the well-being of teens. Meta’s simultaneous call that other social m