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.
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.”
More to come.
