‘You only get like two hours of alcohol or two hours of cigarettes a day’: Former Meta engineer on child safety settlement

A former Meta engineering director has described the $18 billion child safety settlement reached by the company as a "significant milestone," though he warned it's not a panacea for Meta's issues. The settlement requires Meta to implement a range of changes aimed at protecting users under 18, including strengthening age verification, limiting daily screen time to two hours, and blocking use during certain hours.

Critics, however, argue that these measures don't go far enough to address the platform's design flaws. Arturo Béjar, the settlement's first witness, expressed concern that Meta's approach to defining "harm" is too vague. While some safeguards will be enabled by default, others will be opt-in, such as limiting video autoplay and showing posts in chronological order.

Béjar suggested that the settlement should also address the impact of content recommendations, which can be addictive. Meta has agreed to strengthen its age verification technology and hold itself accountable for false positive rates. However, safety features that require user action, like the "take a break" feature, will remain opt-in.

While the settlement represents a substantial improvement over Meta's previous approach, some experts doubt that it will be enough to make the platform truly safe for children.