Will Meta's massive settlement in a landmark US suit spur it to implement age restriction measures worldwide?

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to a significant settlement of $18 billion in a lawsuit brought by US states and territories. The agreement includes a commitment to implement new age restriction safeguards over the next decade. This development comes amid global pressure on social media companies to enhance child safety on their platforms, with regulators worldwide threatening stringent measures, including potential bans.

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This outcome comes on the back of global scrutiny on the harm social media use poses to children and young adults. Different jurisdictions using their regulatory frameworks could impose obligations on Meta to look into similar changes.

Experts suggest that the settlement could serve as a catalyst for Meta to extend these new safety measures to other markets. Dr. Carol Soon, deputy head of the National University of Singapore's communications and new media department, noted that the outcome follows global scrutiny of social media's harm to young people. She anticipates that different jurisdictions will likely request similar changes from Meta.

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They’ve already put in all that effort into introducing new features or introducing restrictions. All these things take manpower, it takes resources. They’ve already pumped all those resources into ensuring that a certain geographical area is fenced off in terms of restrictions, features, sometimes it’s likely for them to roll it out worldwide.

Technology and digital media lawyer Fong Wei Li explained that companies like Meta often plan for worldwide implementation when restrictions are introduced in one region. "They've already put in all that effort into introducing new features or introducing restrictions. All these things take manpower, it takes resources," he said. He added that maintaining separate trust and safety practices across different regions can be challenging and lead to internal confusion.

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Maintaining separate practices for enforcing trust and safety across different regions can also be difficult and internally confusing.

Fong also pointed out the risk of "regulatory arbitrage," where users could exploit differences in standards by creating accounts in regions with less strict regulations. This could prompt regulators in other countries to lobby for the adoption of similar, stricter standards. However, another legal expert, Dr. Dirk Hartung, suggested that Meta might choose a different approach, though the specifics were not detailed in the provided text.

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If the standards are applied differently across areas, consumers can take advantage of “regulatory arbitrage” and set up accounts based in places where the stricter standards are not introduced.