Meta recently announced new features to make its platforms safer for kids.
They includes updated parent controls, teen accounts, and AI tools that remove users thought to be underage.
Do we think these will help?
In today’s newsletter:
How Meta is enforcing its teen accounts
What I like about it but why I still don’t trust them
Something a teenager told me this week that I can’t get over.
Let’s dive in.
Meta Enforcing Teen Accounts
In light of mounting evidence of harm done to teens by Meta’s social network platforms, the tech giant is taking steps to make Instagram and Facebook safer for kids.
In a post earlier this month, Meta highlighted its efforts in improving teen safety, stating, “We want young people to have safe, positive experiences online.”
Their post highlights measures that center around reporting, parental controls, and enforcing age restrictions.
Here’s what’s they’re doing:
Teen Accounts: The key to Meta’s safety efforts are its teen accounts. In 2024, all known teenage users were migrated to “teen accounts” with increased protections, limits, and parent access.
Improvements to Family Center: Meta highlighted new controls added to its Family Center. The parental controls include limits, restrictions, and age-verification for kids.
AI Profiling: This is their newest implementation. Meta will sniff out underaged accounts by implementing AI that searches for “visual cues.” This includes moving teenagers into teen accounts and removing accounts of users under 13.
Meta concluded by arguing for legislation to require app stores to handle age verification and provide that information to app developers for improved experiences—which sort of sounds like blame-shifting, but I get the sentiment that age-verification requires a coordinated effort.
I’ll share my take below.
📱 Need help setting screen time limits with your kids?
Most parenting advice on screens falls into two camps: total ban or total surrender. Neither actually helps.
The Practical Parenting: Screen Time Series is a short video course that cuts through the noise with real science — so you can stop second-guessing every swipe and start making decisions you actually feel good about.
Same Soup, Different Bowl
How do you feel about Meta’s new measures to protect kids on their platform?
I feel differently about each part:
🟢 Teen account settings are essential. We should not be curating the same experience for adults and teens. Teen accounts with limitations feels like an appropriate start.
🟡 Family Center controls are great… if parents use them. Like all parental controls, Meta’s are theoretically a step toward safer experiences, but they take a lot of work and often go underutilized.
🔴 Meta’s Use of AI is alarming. I don’t want Meta using AI to examine my life. I don’t want AI being used to assess my kids’ birthday parties, family gatherings, and vacations. I imagine you don’t either. They say its not the same as “facial recognition” but still feels intrusive and like surveillance.
(I don’t say this as an alarmist. I use AI for various tasks in my own work and I know plenty of people using AI tools to accomplish good in the world. My hesitation here has more to do with not trusting the organization behind the tool.)
Meta has a long track record for preserving it’s self-interests. Their goal will always be to keep our attention, our data, and our time.
All these new features do is give us a semblance of safety without changing the underlying problems.
Meta’s running their playbook: say the right things, do the bare minimum, and keep us coming back for more. Instagram and Facebook are no safer than they were before.
They’re serving us the exact same soup, just a different bowl.
Meta still doesn’t care about our kids.
Kids are recognizing the heavy cost of social media.
According to a Jonathan Haidt survey, over a third of Gen Z wish Facebook and Instagram had never been invented.
Gen Z spends about 4 hours a day on social media, and it’s raising their level of concern over mental health issues and addiction, things that Facebook and Instagram foster.
Our kids are living in a social media cycle that fills them with regret.
As parents we have to postpone social media use.
And if our 16-year-olds decide to get on Instagram or Snapchat, we have to coach them through it. That means placing restrictions and being ready to help them walk things back if they get into trouble.
But don’t buy into the lie that social media is normal and safe or getting safer. As long as it exists, it’s going to be a minefield for parents to sweep with wisdom and caution.
But it’s not up to Meta to determine what is normal, what is acceptable, or what is safe.
It’s up to us.
Let’s Meet on Monday!
I’m speaking at the Region One Prevention Conference next week! I’d love to see you there.
Region One Prevention is a group that brings law enforcement, parents, and community leaders together to fight against substance abuse and for better futures in NWA.
📍 Fayetteville Public Library
📆 Monday June 8
🕛 12pm - 2pm
My session is called: Real Frontline Conversations on Video Games and Social Media.
Our session will focus on how you can help a young person connect the dots on how screen time is affecting their mental health and recovery.
Let’s connect!
This week I had a chance to speak with TASC in Rogers.
One teen shared with me that her grades were all Cs so her grandma took away her phone for a whole 6 months.
She was watching YouTube mostly but she said the hardest thing was missing texts from friends… but then she shared, “It got so bad that I would sneak my grandmas tablet out at night to watch YouTube.”
Notice she did not sneak her tablet out to message her friends, it was to watch YouTube. The hardest part for her was the dopamine withdrawal that numbed her negative feelings.
She shared that the first few weeks were the worst but she got used to it.
I thought the most important thing that she shared was when I asked, “What don’t you like about screens?” She answered, “I don’t like the way my grandma and others think about me because of how much YouTube I watch.”
I can’t stop thinking about that. When asked about screens, she said something about relationships. When she said she missed the relationships, she sought out screens.
— Ian