Nearly three years after the lawsuit was filed, Meta has finally made a change that puts kids first. On August 26, a bipartisan coalition of 52 state attorneys reached an agreement with Meta. The litigation stated that Meta “deliberately designed its platforms to exploit young users’ vulnerabilities, and foster compulsive use.”

The agreement includes multiple changes on how minors can access and use Facebook and Instagram:

• The two-hour time limit: Users under 18 get a default two-hour daily time limit across both Facebook and Instagram. The apps will also be blocked from midnight to 6 a.m.
• Age assurance: Meta has to strengthen its technology to identify under-13-year-old accounts.
• Algorithm choice: Teens can make a non-personalized/algorithmic feed.
• Parents get more control: Parents will get alerts when their teen tries to change these settings or about suspicious interactions.

These are only a few of the many new settings and restrictions in place for teen accounts.

When I was addicted to social media, there was almost no way to prevent it. My parents and I did everything we could to protect my safety. But it’s impossible on an app designed to hook us in. Now we are finally getting those preventative measures. There will be more protections in place to save kids like me.

Through my journey of advocating for teens, my only hope was to protect one person from the fate I fell to. I am so great to the state of Utah and all the individuals that put the pressure on Meta and made this happen.

This is only a starting point; we still need platforms like Google and Apple and apps like TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube to join us in saving kids. But for now, this is a huge success, and it’s more than my 13-year-old self could ever have imagined.

Thank you for listening to my story. It is truly a time to celebrate.

Liddy Johnson

Layton