The new teen "explore" feature on Instagram. Instagram Instagram will “substantially reduce” its reference to the Motion Picture Association‘s PG-13 rating thanks to a deal between Meta and the Hollywood trade organization. The social media platform will also add a disclaimer, marking a clear distinction between the MPA’s PG-13 rating, and its own variation.
Terms of the agreement will go into effect beginning April 15.
Late last year Meta’s Instagram announced teen accounts, including a disclosure that they would be “guided by” the PG-13 rating. The MPA was furious with the move, as it protects its film ratings system closely, and sent a cease and desist letter to Meta, calling the use of PG-13 “false and highly misleading.”
“Today’s agreement clearly distinguishes the MPA’s film ratings from Instagram’s Teen Account content moderation tools,” said Charles Rivkin, Chairman and CEO of the MPA, in a statement. “While we welcome efforts to protect kids from content that may not be appropriate for them, this agreement helps ensure that parents do not conflate the two systems – which operate in very different contexts. The MPA is proud of the trust we have built with parents for nearly sixty years with our film rating system, and we will continue to do everything we can to protect that trust.” “We’re pleased to have reached an agreement with the MPA,” added a Meta spokesperson. “By taking inspiration from a framework families know, our goal was to help parents better understand our teen content policies. We rigorously reviewed those policies against 13+ movie ratings criteria and parent feedback, updated them, and applied them to Teen Accounts by default. While that’s not changing, we’ve taken the MPA’s feedback on how we talk about that work. We’ll keep working to support parents and provide age-appropriate experiences for teens.”
The MPA had moved swiftly after Instagram announced the rating, noting its own 60-year history of providing ratings for films (the ratings are also trademarked by the group). After the legal letter was sent, Meta changed its reference from PG-13 to “inspired by movie ratings for ages 13+” and added a disclaimer. The resolution announced Tuesday formalizes that.
“There are lots of differences between social media and movies,” the new disclaimer will read. “We didn’t work with the MPA when updating our content settings, and they’re not rating any content on Instagram, and they’re not endorsing or approving our content settings in any way. Rather, we drew inspiration from the MPA’s public guidelines, which are already familiar to parents. Our content moderation systems are not the same as a movie ratings board, so the experience may not be exactly the same.”
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