The Meta Settlement Will Put Limits on Instagram for Teens. They’re Still Vulnerable
The Meta Settlement Will Put Limits on Instagram for Teens. They’re Still Vulnerable
Meta 和解协议将限制青少年使用 Instagram，但他们仍面临风险
Advocates for children tell WIRED that Meta’s legal settlement to address concerns about teenagers’ use of social media proposes important and overdue feature changes that invite more parental oversight than ever before. They also, though, say it puts a significant burden on caregivers and unreliable age-assessment systems. 儿童权益倡导者向《连线》（WIRED）表示，Meta 为解决青少年使用社交媒体相关担忧而达成的法律和解，提出了一些重要且迟来的功能变更，这些变更引入了比以往任何时候都更强的家长监管。然而，他们也指出，这给监护人带来了沉重的负担，且依赖于不可靠的年龄评估系统。
Rather than go through a lengthy federal civil trial—and possible appeals process—in Northern California over the next five weeks, Meta instead on Wednesday agreed to a proposed settlement with a group of state attorneys general, who were suing the social media company for alleged harms against kids on its apps. The settlement includes a payout of up to $16.7 billion overall to states and significant changes to the way Instagram and Facebook work for teen users. 为了避免在北加州进行为期五周的漫长联邦民事审判及可能的上诉程序，Meta 周三与一群州检察长达成了一项拟议和解协议。此前，这些检察长起诉该公司，指控其应用程序对儿童造成了伤害。该和解协议包括向各州支付总计高达 167 亿美元的赔偿，并对 Instagram 和 Facebook 青少年用户的使用方式进行重大调整。
US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers approved the settlement on Wednesday. 美国地方法官伊冯·冈萨雷斯·罗杰斯（Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers）于周三批准了该和解协议。
The settlement fee, paid out in yearly installments over 10 years, would be a rounding error for Meta, which raked in more than $200 billion in revenue last year. Meta shares fared well on Wednesday as investors cheered the pending removal of perhaps the biggest of many teen lawsuits targeting the company. 这笔和解费用将在 10 年内分期支付，对于去年营收超过 2000 亿美元的 Meta 来说，这只是九牛一毛。周三 Meta 股价表现良好，投资者对该公司面临的众多青少年诉讼中规模最大的一起即将了结感到振奋。
But the proposed changes to Meta’s flagship apps, which include forced time limits, notification blocks, and a chronological feed option for teens, would be some of the most significant changes Meta has made as a result of the ongoing scrutiny of the company’s policies. California attorney general Rob Bonta called it a “watershed moment.” 然而，针对 Meta 旗舰应用提出的变更（包括强制时间限制、通知拦截以及为青少年提供按时间顺序排列的信息流选项）是该公司因持续受到政策审查而做出的最重大调整之一。加州总检察长罗伯·邦塔（Rob Bonta）称其为“分水岭时刻”。
Still, child safety advocates and mental health experts doubt the effectiveness of Meta’s proposed changes. Digital rights activists, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, are sounding alarms that the increased age-verification measures that would be built into Meta’s apps for teens would “enshrine Meta’s harmful surveillance into law.” 尽管如此，儿童安全倡导者和心理健康专家仍对 Meta 拟议变更的有效性表示怀疑。包括电子前沿基金会（Electronic Frontier Foundation）在内的数字权利活动人士发出警告称，Meta 为青少年应用内置的加强版年龄验证措施，将“把 Meta 有害的监控行为写入法律”。
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment on concerns raised about the settlement. Meta 未立即回应有关该和解协议所引发担忧的置评请求。
What’s Changing
哪些内容将发生变化
In a big win for the states, parents will now be alerted when teens correspond with suspicious accounts or open a second account, sometimes known as a “finsta,” to furtively use Instagram. In addition, parents will receive periodic updates on their children’s use of Instagram and Facebook, including any attempts to evade parental controls. 对于各州而言，这是一次重大胜利：当青少年与可疑账户通信或开设第二个账户（有时被称为“小号”或“finsta”）以偷偷使用 Instagram 时，家长将收到提醒。此外，家长还将定期收到关于子女使用 Instagram 和 Facebook 情况的更新，包括任何试图规避家长控制的行为。
Very few of the new measures restrict the types of specific content adolescents can see, with the exception of blocking exposure to extreme makeover filters. But there are several new limits on when young users can scroll their feeds. Access will be blocked overnight and will be limited to two hours during the day, unless parents allow more. From August 15 to June 15 each year, during the US school year, notifications will be muted by default from 8 am to 3 pm. 除了禁止接触极端整容滤镜外，这些新措施中很少有针对青少年可见特定内容类型的限制。但对于年轻用户浏览信息流的时间，则有了几项新限制。除非家长允许延长，否则夜间将禁止访问，白天限制为两小时。每年 8 月 15 日至 6 月 15 日（美国学年期间），上午 8 点至下午 3 点的通知将默认静音。
And users may also opt into a non-algorithmic feed and turn off autoplay of videos, though how Meta plans to make those potentially helpful options palatable to teens was unaddressed. Parents, however, can make those settings the default on their children’s accounts. 用户还可以选择非算法信息流并关闭视频自动播放功能，尽管 Meta 尚未说明如何让青少年乐于接受这些潜在有益的选项。不过，家长可以将这些设置设为子女账户的默认选项。
“These are common-sense regulations that will do a lot of good,” says Jean Twenge, who wrote the book 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World and testified as an expert psychologist for the states during the trial last week. “Teens should not be using social media in the middle of the night, at school, or for so many hours a day that it crowds out time for talking with friends and family, going outside, exercising, and sleeping.” “这些是常识性的监管，将带来很多好处，”《高科技世界育儿十条准则》（10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World）一书的作者、上周在审判中作为州方心理学专家出庭作证的简·特温格（Jean Twenge）表示，“青少年不应该在深夜、在学校使用社交媒体，也不应该每天花费太多时间，以至于挤占了与亲友交谈、户外活动、锻炼和睡眠的时间。”
One of the changes—hiding “like” counts by default—was first tested among a broad set of users about seven years ago. Despite internal research showing that publicly visible “like” counts could contribute to people engaging in harmful social comparison, Meta only rolled out the ability to hide them as an option. “People didn’t really go in and adjust those settings in any significant quantities,” Vaishnavi Jayakumar, a former head of youth policy at Meta, said in a deposition last year. 其中一项变更——默认隐藏“点赞”数——大约七年前首次在广大用户中进行测试。尽管内部研究表明，公开可见的“点赞”数可能导致人们进行有害的社会比较，但 Meta 仅将其作为一项可选功能推出。Meta 前青年政策负责人 Vaishnavi Jayakumar 在去年的证词中表示：“人们并没有真正去大量调整这些设置。”
Carol Vidal, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says the proposed changes are broadly positive. She points specifically to muted notifications at night, for sleep health, and Meta’s proposed limits on plastic surgery filters, noting that “a lot of girls, particularly, are struggling with self-image and comparing themselves online to other people on social media.” 约翰霍普金斯大学医学院精神病学与行为科学副教授卡罗尔·维达尔（Carol Vidal）表示，这些拟议的变更总体上是积极的。她特别提到了夜间静音通知对睡眠健康的好处，以及 Meta 对整容滤镜的限制，并指出：“许多女孩，尤其是那些在自我形象上挣扎的女孩，经常在社交媒体上将自己与他人进行比较。”
But, Vidal says, measuring the effectiveness of the changes could take years to research. 但维达尔表示，衡量这些变更的有效性可能需要数年的研究。
Why Experts Are Still Concerned
专家为何仍感到担忧
The widespread, immediate responses to Meta’s proposed changes underscore just how complicated it is to regulate social media. 各界对 Meta 拟议变更的广泛且迅速的反应，凸显了监管社交媒体的复杂性。
Tanzeem Choudhury, a professor of integrated health and technology at Cornell Tech, the New York City–based research arm of Cornell University, says the proposed changes mostly inject “friction of use.” She points out that measures such as daily limits, nighttime blocks, or muted notifications can be bypassed through secondary accounts or false ages. 康奈尔大学纽约研究机构 Cornell Tech 的综合健康与技术教授 Tanzeem Choudhury 表示，这些拟议的变更主要增加了“使用摩擦”。她指出，每日限额、夜间拦截或静音通知等措施可以通过小号或虚假年龄来绕过。
So a lot is riding on Meta’s ability to successfully age-gate kids into an experience it calls Teen Accounts. “None of the protections will work if kids and teens can just choose a birth year that makes them 18 or otherwise evade age assurance,” says Twenge, the expert witness. 因此，很大程度上取决于 Meta 能否成功地通过年龄门槛将儿童引导至其所谓的“青少年账户”体验中。专家证人特温格表示：“如果儿童和青少年只需选择一个让自己年满 18 岁的出生年份，或者以其他方式规避年龄验证，那么所有的保护措施都将失效。”
As part of the deal, Meta agreed to strengthen age assurance but provided few details. “While we’ll do all we can to accurately understand someone’s age, through both AI prediction technology and steps to confirm someone’s age (like ID collection or Yoti’s facial scanning), we need app stores to provide us with verified age information from devices,” Meta spokesperson Stephanie Otway says. 作为协议的一部分，Meta 同意加强年龄验证，但提供的细节很少。Meta 发言人斯蒂芬妮·奥特韦（Stephanie Otway）表示：“虽然我们将尽一切努力通过人工智能预测技术和确认年龄的步骤（如收集身份证件或使用 Yoti 的面部扫描）来准确了解用户的年龄，但我们需要应用商店提供来自设备的已验证年龄信息。”
Even if successful, age-verification requirements are unwelcome to privacy and security activists. Kate Ruane, the director for the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, says Meta’s new age assurance tools could pose “significant risks to everyone’s 即使成功，年龄验证要求也不受隐私和安全活动人士的欢迎。民主与技术中心（Center for Democracy and Technology）言论自由项目主任凯特·鲁恩（Kate Ruane）表示，Meta 新的年龄验证工具可能会对每个人的隐私构成“重大风险”。