The UK government is urging Meta to extend the same safety measures for children in Britain as those recently established in the United States. This follows a significant legal settlement in the US that mandates Meta to implement default safety features for users under the age of 18, which could potentially cost the tech giant as much as $18 billion. Among these protections are a two-hour daily usage limit that can only be extended with parental consent, overnight restrictions, and limitations on notifications during school hours and nighttime.
British officials maintain that the level of protection offered to young people in the UK should be on par with that provided to their counterparts in the US. In line with these expectations, the UK government is also working on new regulations to control social media access for children. These upcoming measures include prohibiting under-16s from accessing certain platforms and instituting overnight curfews for teenage users.
This settlement has amplified the demand for more stringent regulation of social media platforms, focusing on curbing features that promote excessive use of these services. The agreement with Meta is seen as a step toward addressing the growing concerns about the impact of social media on young users and their well-being.
Despite the positive reception of these measures, some experts argue that simply imposing time limits and curfews may not be sufficient to tackle the issues posed by engagement-driven features. Such features include infinite scrolling, autoplay, and algorithmic recommendations, which are designed to keep users hooked on platforms for extended periods. These elements, they contend, require further scrutiny and regulation to ensure young users are adequately protected.
