Meta's $17.1 billion settlement requires new safety measures for under-18 users, including a two-hour daily limit and blocking Instagram and Facebook overnight. I'm frustrated it took this long, and that an overnight block can falsely reassure parents when what we really need is a national push for screen-free sleep. I'm glad it happened. And with AI, we have to move much faster.
Kudos to the many orgs, bloggers, and news outlets for the extensive coverage of Meta’s $17.1 billion settlement, to be paid over 10 years, along with a legal obligation to take steps to reduce harm to young users of its products.
In brief, the settlement requires Meta to add a range of safety measures for users under 18, including a default two-hour daily limit, stronger age verification, parental controls, and blocking access to Instagram and Facebook from midnight to 6 a.m.
It also requires changes such as hiding likes, restricting certain features and notifications, and giving teens more control over algorithmic feeds.
Today I'm share some of my feelings about the matter:
This should not have taken this long to hold Meta liable for the harms. In 2013, I first picked up my camera to begin the 3.5-year journey to make the first of the five Screenagers films. I did so because I was seeing many examples of the negative ways Facebook was affecting youth.
There have been dozens of congressional hearings over the years, and no accountability or regulations have happened.
While it is wonderful that lawyers have realized that, instead of focusing on Section 230 (i.e., social media companies not being liable for what people post), they can now use product safety laws to win, but why did it take so long?
Robbie Torney, from Common Sense Media, says in our new movie Screenagers: Generation AI:
“It took about 15 years for the first lawsuits to be filed related to harms that kids experienced on social media platforms. It's been much quicker with AI.”
And I’m frustrated because I worry that Meta (and hopefully others who need to be involved if Meta is to pay the full amount) will not make the promised changes.
AND more importantly, there will be many ways to get around the limitations, with issues of age verification and more.
One more frustration (I have more, but I don’t want to be a downer…we don’t need that!) is that Meta says it will block Facebook and Instagram from midnight to 6 a.m. for teens.
But what we really need is a full-fledged, national, major health campaign to get all tech out of bedrooms during sleep time.
Anything that falsely reassures parents, instead of giving them the knowledge and tools to understand why making screen-free sleep happen for their kids matters, is putting a non-sticky Band-Aid on a wound… frustrating and minimally helpful.
We have a campaign, Screen-Free Sleep, but, come on everyone, we need much more (I am speaking particularly to public health leaders).
Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
Join Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD for our latest Podcast
Learn more about our Screen-Free Sleep campaign at the website!
Our movie made for parents and educators of younger kids
Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
Register your interest in bringing our new movie to your school or community
Yes, I am happy that the settlement happened as a step in the right direction. We are headed in the right direction, and that is a good thing.
Meta and the other social media companies need to pay out a lot more funds to make me very happy.
These funds are desperately needed to get in place and fund, for a long time, many things for youth, such as opportunities for in-life experiences like after-school programs and mental health services.
We need to act fast to make these companies truly help us support healthy development.
Many of these companies are using AI, of course. In our new film, Screenagers: Generation AI, Zak Stein, founder of The AI Research Coalition, makes an important point:
“These are very powerful technologies that have no regulation, no safety testing. If I want to open a sandwich shop in New York City, I have to get a ton of inspections. There are all of these regulations on, like, what temperature you keep the chicken, and when it's in the fridge, and how clean is your stove?
And they'll randomly inspect you. If I want to open up an advanced technology company and create an AI that tricks your kids into having a relationship with me, I can do that without any regulation, without any safety testing.”
I completely agree. We need a safety system because, as Zak goes on to say:
“These are multi-billion dollar companies. Why isn't the burden of proof on them to demonstrate safety? Whereas the burden of proof is on us to demonstrate risk.”
By the way, someday I’d like to see phones with OS-level age-appropriate content controls, where the phone itself can block or filter inappropriate content across all apps, set time limits, and more, rather than requiring parents to play whack-a-mole by managing one app at a time or dealing with time limits that are easy for kids to bypass.
This is different from Apple’s parental controls or phones like the Bark Phone. My conversations with Alex Stamos, a leading expert on safety and technology, are what have made me think that this is ultimately the direction we need to go.
The Robbie Torrey quote that I mentioned above says it all…
“It took about 15 years for the first lawsuits to be filed related to harms that kids experienced on social media platforms. It's been much quicker with AI.”
Having robots form relationships with our kids is incredibly worrisome, and as I am sure you know, suicides have happened due to these relationships.
And there are many other risks with AI for young people. Our new film explores these risks not as a scare tactic, but as a thoughtful exploration, including what we can do to help make things safer for our kids when it comes to AI.
We have each other. We have so many organizations of parents, so many schools, faith-based groups, people from all political views… millions of us who want this to be a national priority to make these products safe and not allow the compulsive behavior that they cause.
I am here with you, as is Lisa, my film partner, and all of us here at Screenagers. We are here for the long run.
I just have to add that my heart feels so much for all of us. This hasn't been easy, and there's still a lot more to do.
Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
Join Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD for our latest Podcast
Learn more about our Screen-Free Sleep campaign at the website!
Our movie made for parents and educators of younger kids
Join Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD for our latest Podcast
Register your interest in bringing our new movie to your school or community
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! We add new videos regularly and you'll find over 100 videos covering parenting advice, guidance, podcasts, movie clips and more. Here's our most recent:
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Kudos to the many orgs, bloggers, and news outlets for the extensive coverage of Meta’s $17.1 billion settlement, to be paid over 10 years, along with a legal obligation to take steps to reduce harm to young users of its products.
In brief, the settlement requires Meta to add a range of safety measures for users under 18, including a default two-hour daily limit, stronger age verification, parental controls, and blocking access to Instagram and Facebook from midnight to 6 a.m.
It also requires changes such as hiding likes, restricting certain features and notifications, and giving teens more control over algorithmic feeds.
Today I'm share some of my feelings about the matter:
This should not have taken this long to hold Meta liable for the harms. In 2013, I first picked up my camera to begin the 3.5-year journey to make the first of the five Screenagers films. I did so because I was seeing many examples of the negative ways Facebook was affecting youth.
There have been dozens of congressional hearings over the years, and no accountability or regulations have happened.
While it is wonderful that lawyers have realized that, instead of focusing on Section 230 (i.e., social media companies not being liable for what people post), they can now use product safety laws to win, but why did it take so long?
Robbie Torney, from Common Sense Media, says in our new movie Screenagers: Generation AI:
“It took about 15 years for the first lawsuits to be filed related to harms that kids experienced on social media platforms. It's been much quicker with AI.”
And I’m frustrated because I worry that Meta (and hopefully others who need to be involved if Meta is to pay the full amount) will not make the promised changes.
AND more importantly, there will be many ways to get around the limitations, with issues of age verification and more.
One more frustration (I have more, but I don’t want to be a downer…we don’t need that!) is that Meta says it will block Facebook and Instagram from midnight to 6 a.m. for teens.
But what we really need is a full-fledged, national, major health campaign to get all tech out of bedrooms during sleep time.
Anything that falsely reassures parents, instead of giving them the knowledge and tools to understand why making screen-free sleep happen for their kids matters, is putting a non-sticky Band-Aid on a wound… frustrating and minimally helpful.
We have a campaign, Screen-Free Sleep, but, come on everyone, we need much more (I am speaking particularly to public health leaders).
Yes, I am happy that the settlement happened as a step in the right direction. We are headed in the right direction, and that is a good thing.
Meta and the other social media companies need to pay out a lot more funds to make me very happy.
These funds are desperately needed to get in place and fund, for a long time, many things for youth, such as opportunities for in-life experiences like after-school programs and mental health services.
We need to act fast to make these companies truly help us support healthy development.
Many of these companies are using AI, of course. In our new film, Screenagers: Generation AI, Zak Stein, founder of The AI Research Coalition, makes an important point:
“These are very powerful technologies that have no regulation, no safety testing. If I want to open a sandwich shop in New York City, I have to get a ton of inspections. There are all of these regulations on, like, what temperature you keep the chicken, and when it's in the fridge, and how clean is your stove?
And they'll randomly inspect you. If I want to open up an advanced technology company and create an AI that tricks your kids into having a relationship with me, I can do that without any regulation, without any safety testing.”
I completely agree. We need a safety system because, as Zak goes on to say:
“These are multi-billion dollar companies. Why isn't the burden of proof on them to demonstrate safety? Whereas the burden of proof is on us to demonstrate risk.”
By the way, someday I’d like to see phones with OS-level age-appropriate content controls, where the phone itself can block or filter inappropriate content across all apps, set time limits, and more, rather than requiring parents to play whack-a-mole by managing one app at a time or dealing with time limits that are easy for kids to bypass.
This is different from Apple’s parental controls or phones like the Bark Phone. My conversations with Alex Stamos, a leading expert on safety and technology, are what have made me think that this is ultimately the direction we need to go.
The Robbie Torrey quote that I mentioned above says it all…
“It took about 15 years for the first lawsuits to be filed related to harms that kids experienced on social media platforms. It's been much quicker with AI.”
Having robots form relationships with our kids is incredibly worrisome, and as I am sure you know, suicides have happened due to these relationships.
And there are many other risks with AI for young people. Our new film explores these risks not as a scare tactic, but as a thoughtful exploration, including what we can do to help make things safer for our kids when it comes to AI.
We have each other. We have so many organizations of parents, so many schools, faith-based groups, people from all political views… millions of us who want this to be a national priority to make these products safe and not allow the compulsive behavior that they cause.
I am here with you, as is Lisa, my film partner, and all of us here at Screenagers. We are here for the long run.
I just have to add that my heart feels so much for all of us. This hasn't been easy, and there's still a lot more to do.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel! We add new videos regularly and you'll find over 100 videos covering parenting advice, guidance, podcasts, movie clips and more. Here's our most recent:
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Kudos to the many orgs, bloggers, and news outlets for the extensive coverage of Meta’s $17.1 billion settlement, to be paid over 10 years, along with a legal obligation to take steps to reduce harm to young users of its products.
In brief, the settlement requires Meta to add a range of safety measures for users under 18, including a default two-hour daily limit, stronger age verification, parental controls, and blocking access to Instagram and Facebook from midnight to 6 a.m.
It also requires changes such as hiding likes, restricting certain features and notifications, and giving teens more control over algorithmic feeds.
Today I'm share some of my feelings about the matter:
This should not have taken this long to hold Meta liable for the harms. In 2013, I first picked up my camera to begin the 3.5-year journey to make the first of the five Screenagers films. I did so because I was seeing many examples of the negative ways Facebook was affecting youth.
There have been dozens of congressional hearings over the years, and no accountability or regulations have happened.
While it is wonderful that lawyers have realized that, instead of focusing on Section 230 (i.e., social media companies not being liable for what people post), they can now use product safety laws to win, but why did it take so long?
Robbie Torney, from Common Sense Media, says in our new movie Screenagers: Generation AI:
“It took about 15 years for the first lawsuits to be filed related to harms that kids experienced on social media platforms. It's been much quicker with AI.”
And I’m frustrated because I worry that Meta (and hopefully others who need to be involved if Meta is to pay the full amount) will not make the promised changes.
AND more importantly, there will be many ways to get around the limitations, with issues of age verification and more.
One more frustration (I have more, but I don’t want to be a downer…we don’t need that!) is that Meta says it will block Facebook and Instagram from midnight to 6 a.m. for teens.
But what we really need is a full-fledged, national, major health campaign to get all tech out of bedrooms during sleep time.
Anything that falsely reassures parents, instead of giving them the knowledge and tools to understand why making screen-free sleep happen for their kids matters, is putting a non-sticky Band-Aid on a wound… frustrating and minimally helpful.
We have a campaign, Screen-Free Sleep, but, come on everyone, we need much more (I am speaking particularly to public health leaders).
The first of more than a thousand school district lawsuits against TikTok, Snapchat, Meta, and YouTube has settled, with a small Kentucky district awarded $27 million. Discovery records made public showed the companies designed to reach kids during the school day, from in-class alerts to keeping notifications on against safety teams' advice, while research finds students spend about 1.5 hours of a 6.5-hour school day on their phones.
READ MORE >
The first of 1,200+ school district lawsuits against social media companies just settled, with Meta, YouTube, Snap, and TikTok all paying out rather than face a jury. Meta points to its Teen Accounts feature as proof of safety, but a study by former Meta safety lead Arturo Bejar found only 8 of 47 advertised features actually work as described.
READ MORE >
Teen psychologist Lisa Damour breaks down three manipulative tactics online games and apps use to push kids into spending: algorithms that time pitches to when kids are tired or bored, scarcity tactics like countdown timers that trigger impulse buys, and in-app currencies (gems, coins, tokens) designed to disguise real dollar costs. Research shows teens resist these tactics better once they understand them.
READ MORE >for more like this, DR. DELANEY RUSTON'S NEW BOOK, PARENTING IN THE SCREEN AGE, IS THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR TODAY’S PARENTS. WITH INSIGHTS ON SCREEN TIME FROM RESEARCHERS, INPUT FROM KIDS & TEENS, THIS BOOK IS PACKED WITH SOLUTIONS FOR HOW TO START AND SUSTAIN PRODUCTIVE FAMILY TALKS ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND IT’S IMPACT ON OUR MENTAL WELLBEING.
