UAE parents welcome Meta’s $18 billion child-safety deal and midnight social media shutdown: ‘Pressure is off us’

UAE parents have welcomed Meta's $18 billion child-safety deal and the proposed social media shutdown, viewing it as a significant shift in responsibility. The settlement, reached from a major trial in California, requires Meta to block Facebook and Instagram between midnight and 6am, disable notifications during school hours, and limit teenagers to two hours of usage per day. The company will also employ age-assurance technology to verify users' ages.

Nicole Akalla, a senior PR & Communications Consultant based in Dubai, believes that automatic app shutdowns will take the pressure off parents, eliminating daily arguments about screen time. She supports the proposed limits, including the two-hour usage cap, as they remove the need for parents to constantly nag their children. However, Akalla acknowledges that parents still need to enforce the rules consistently.

Sharrah Khilawala shares a similar perspective, emphasizing the importance of sleep for children's development. She supports the app restrictions and believes they will help alleviate the burden of daily screen time policing. However, Khilawala cautions that the real challenge lies in parental consistency in enforcing the set boundaries.

Chris Baby, a mother of three young children, firmly supports the new rules, arguing that social media screen time should not be mixed with general screen time. She believes that children should not be on social media at night, especially younger ones, and sees no need for unrestricted access during those hours. Instead, she favors limits on social media usage for children and recognizes that even educational screen time should be moderated.