{"id":46845,"date":"2026-08-29T01:22:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T05:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/08\/29\/not-far-enough-parents-and-teens-on-metas-new-limits-for-young-users\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T01:22:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T05:22:46","slug":"not-far-enough-parents-and-teens-on-metas-new-limits-for-young-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/08\/29\/not-far-enough-parents-and-teens-on-metas-new-limits-for-young-users\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Not far enough’ – parents and teens on Meta’s new limits for young users"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

For Elizabeth Cardner, a mother of two girls in Houston, Texas, Meta’s new limits on how teenagers can use its platforms are a welcome sign that more people are aware of social media’s potential dangers.<\/b><\/p>\n

But, she tells the BBC, they probably won’t help much in the long-term.<\/p>\n

“It will save a few arguments at home, but it doesn’t go far enough,” she says.<\/p>\n

This week, Meta announced new restrictions on its platforms – which include Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp – as part of an $18bn (\u00a313.25bn) settlement with US states in a lawsuit on social media’s effects on children.<\/p>\n

The company said it would set a daily two-hour time limit, hide the number of likes that a post receives, remove autoplay on videos, mute push notifications during school hours, and ban extreme make-up filters.<\/p>\n

It also announced changes to its age-verification process and parental controls as well as agreeing to appoint an independent auditor to check the measures are implemented and maintained.<\/p>\n

Many parents across the US see the restrictions as helpful, but are still sceptical. Those who spoke to the BBC described feeling stuck – where they feel they can’t cut their children off from social media but also can’t protect them from the harms they believe it causes – and they are waiting to see how much of a difference these new rules will make.<\/p>\n

Cardner’s 14-year-old, Paige, believes the restrictions will lead to “more real-life scenarios” and less “fake content”, which she says dominates social media. She and her sister both approve of hiding the numbers of likes and restricting filters.<\/p>\n

But Paige sees those gains as short-lived, “since AI is evolving”.<\/p>\n

“People will find new ways to have fake filters, and correct certain parts of their videos or pictures,” she says. “So I think it’ll help until people use other resources to try and find new ways to do that.”<\/p>\n

Cardner says banning her daughters entirely from social media would only result in them being left out by their peers.<\/p>\n

“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” she says. “I don’t think there’s any winning on it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Another mother of two teens, Andria Rose, told the BBC that she feels defenceless and “no matter how much I protect my kids, Facebook, Instagram – they’re coming in and literally, like, taking them out of their rooms”.<\/p>\n

Even though she calls Meta’s changes “fantastic”, Rose, who lives near Boston, Massachusetts, doesn’t believe they are fully addressing the problem.<\/p>\n

“They’re trying to limit the drug, but they’re not controlling the drug,” she says. “They’re still dealing.”<\/p>\n

Rose notes her personal use of social media costs her sleep at night.<\/p>\n

“I’m hooked,” she says. “So what do you think is going to happen to a kid?”<\/p>\n

The settlement was announced on Wednesday in the middle of a highly-anticipated trial, where Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg was expected to testify. The settlement did not include any admission of fault.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The lawsuit was originally filed in 2023 by 29 US states, alleging Meta deliberately designed its platforms to be addictive and lied about risks. They also accused it of violating a federal law on collecting children’s personal information.<\/p>\n

The settlement – announced this week – included 48 states, plus the District of Columbia and three US territories.<\/p>\n

Several studies have found social media to be harmful to mental health, especially for children. Last year, a BBC investigation found children were being exposed to content about bullying, suicide and weapons on social media platforms.<\/p>\n

For Rose, Meta’s settlement payment “is like throwing a couple of dollar bills at a problem”, given how much money the company makes and how much she believes the industry profited from children during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Joanie Story, a mother of four boys in Long Island, takes issue with another part of Meta’s announcement – its conditions involving other platforms.<\/p>\n

The company will withhold $5bn of the settlement, and only release it if YouTube, TikTok and others also enter into similar agreements.<\/p>\n

It also said it would further tighten its time limit to one hour if other platforms implement similar restrictions. Story sees that as “petty”.<\/p>\n

“That’s like saying: ‘You know, we have the ability to fix what is broken, but we’re only gonna fix it halfway,'” she says.<\/p>\n

Still, Story is greeting the new rules as “good controls”. She says she saw what a lack of controls could do when two of her sons were accidentally exposed to explicit content on a non-Meta platform. One boy has been in therapy for four years, she says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Elizabeth Cardner, a mother of two girls in Houston, Texas, Meta’s new limits on how teenagers can use its platforms are a welcome sign that more people are aware of social media’s potential dangers. But, she tells the BBC, they probably won’t help much in the long-term. “It will save a few arguments at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,21,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-market","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}