Can you name anything scarier to Meta than the EU right now? We’ll wait.
What happened: Meta is rolling out new features aimed at users aged 13-17 that will give their parents more supervision and warn them to cool it with all the dang scrolling.
- New tools will give parents more insight into what their kids do on Messenger, Instagram will add a feature that kindly suggests putting down their phones if they’re on Reels late at night, and Facebook will advise them to log off after 20 minutes.
Why it matters: Social media can harm young people’s noggins. Many studies have linked social media use in adolescents with aggravated mental health issues and increased loneliness. Even internal studies from Meta concluded Instagram gives girls body issues.
Zoom out: The changes come after EU industry chief Thierry Breton—who calls himself “The Enforcer” of the Digital Services Act (DSA)—threatened Meta with sanctions if it didn’t strengthen its child protection measures by the time the DSA comes into effect in August.
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The warning was seemingly triggered by a recent report from The Wall Street Journal that exposed how Instagram is used to distribute child sexual abuse material.
- Meta was already slapped with a €405 million fine for letting minors display phone numbers and e-mails and automatically making their accounts visible to the public.
What’s next: Meta and the EU agreed to a stress test to see if its platforms live up to the EU’s new online content rules next month. These tweaks are likely only the beginning.—QH