After years of criticism that social media companies have done too little to protect minors from harm, Meta announced Tuesday that it would add new restrictions to teen accounts, using the standards for PG-13 movie ratings as a guide.
The restrictions would be set by default for users under the age of 18, and parents would be able to choose even stricter ratings for their child, if they prefer.
“Just like you might see some suggestive content or hear some strong language in a PG-13 movie, teens may occasionally see something like that on Instagram — but we’re going to keep doing all we can to keep those instances as rare as possible. We recognize no system is perfect, and we’re committed to improving over time," Meta said in a statement.
Meta introduced teen accounts for Instagram in September of 2024, and teen accounts for Facebook and Messenger in May of this year. The company has said that it uses age prediction technology to identify teens who try to pass themselves off as adults.
PG-13 is one of five ratings established by the Motion Picture Association. (The others are G, PG, R and NC-17.) The rating warns “Parents strongly cautioned” and says that some material may be inappropriate for children 13 and younger.
According to Variety, recent and upcoming movies that carried the PG-13 rating include “Tron: Ares,” “Superman,” “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” “F1: The Movie,” “Jurassic World: Rebirth” and “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.”
Per The Wall Street Journal, “Under the new limits, Instagram said it would hide certain content like strong language, risky stunts and marijuana-related content from teen users.”
Meta, like other social-media companies, has been under scrutiny by policymakers as evidence continues to mount that social media is harmful to teens. On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation requiring age verification from technology companies such as Apple and Google. And in Utah, Gov. Spencer Cox has been at the forefront of national efforts to demand that social media companies do more to protect children. Utah was the first state in the nation to pass legislation requiring age verification for apps and its legislation has been a model for other states, even as it faces court challenges that have delayed implementation.
Speaking last year on “Meet the Press,” Cox said, “We have seen, again, suicide rates going up, depression, anxiety, self-harm rates skyrocketing. And what we know also is it corresponds with social media becoming ubiquitous and cellphones becoming ubiquitous with our teenagers.”
In its announcement, Meta said that it would also follow the PG-13 rating in its standard for AI interaction. This follows a Wall Street Journal investigation into how chatbots on the platform were having sexually explicit conversations with minors.
Reaction on social media was mixed, with Zamaan Qureshi, an advocate for tech accountability, saying the move amounts to a publicity stunt. Tech journalist Carmi Levy said “Good on them, but it’s still not enough — not even close."
And perhaps most concerningly for Meta, the Motion Picture Association seemed unhappy that the company was co-opting its rating system, saying in a statement that no conversations had taken place with Meta.
Per Variety, “We welcome efforts to protect kids from content that may not be appropriate for them, but assertions that Instagram’s new tool will be ‘guided by PG-13 movie ratings’ or have any connection to the film industry’s rating system are inaccurate,” MPA chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin said.