After the Legal Dust Has Settled: The Roles of Parents and the Free Market Remain Paramount After Meta Agreement
Last week, Meta reached an agreement with 52 attorneys general following a landmark social media addiction trial in and largely led by the State of California. The framework outlines a series of features that will automatically apply to the social media accounts of people under the age of 18. Many of these features, like time limits and night mode, were already options for users. How should parents understand this announcement? Is the new account structure the comprehensive solution to keeping kids safe online? The reality is not so simple. Despite the expanded scope of Meta’s new model, mandatory protections and strengthened parental controls can do little if parents are not engaged and informed with their children’s social media activity.
Within the agreement a few details deserve highlighting, as they reveal the role that only parents can play.
Not every change to the standard account format will be set to default. Algorithmic feed control, whether or not teens see personalized recommendations, and autoplay control, wherein content automatically plays, will be left up to the parents’ discretion. In other words, parents need to make decisions about how they want their children to experience content online. This is not a decision that Meta, or any attorney general, is making on their behalf.
Beyond the customizable controls, the agreement also stresses the importance of correctly classifying the age of their users, so that content and controls reflect this age. However, age verification measures are notoriously unreliable. Whether it be at the app store or individual app level, children around the world have shown their savvy at passing these age checks. Beyond the limits to age verification technology, there is a troubling history of data breaches and privacy risks associated with this undertaking — not only for minors, but for adult users who must prove they are not minors. The most reliable way to ensure that teens and preteens are not exposed to content inappropriate for their age then is not a face scan or an ID submission. It’s a parent or caretaker regularly checking, limiting, and even stopping their social media use.
In their official statement, Meta calls for YouTube and TikTok to adopt their new standard for users under the age of 18. While Meta and the attorney generals it has partnered with are certainly powerful players within the tech industry, the tech industry has shown time and time again how responsive it can be, not to pressure from other companies, but to the desires of consumers. Over recent years, the aforementioned platforms have pioneered parental controls and kid-friendly formats in response to the outcry of parents. The most lasting change and greatest opportunity for impact will come from families continuing to advocate for the online experience they want. This can take a number of forms: choosing to use platforms with parental controls and customized youth versions, applying any number of parental oversight extensions from other companies, or even forbidding their children from using the platforms altogether — an option that is vastly underdiscussed in the present debate around social media.
While parents are the first defense when it comes to how and when their children use the internet, lawmakers are not left without a role to play. Louisiana is set to receive $180 million, or even more, as part of Meta’s settlement. The sum can be used to fund youth online safety initiatives or other state priorities. Promoting digital literacy in schools and equipping law enforcement with the tools they need to stop bad actors are both examples of online safety measures that avoid the pitfalls of zealous regulation while still promoting a healthy, safe internet ecosystem. The challenge then, is to both identify state priorities and to use funds to address real problems without creating an unsustainable program that withers away after the funds are gone.
Meta and the attorneys general might have settled, but that is by no means a reason for parents or consumers to do the same.
