Instagram will “significantly reduce” its reference to a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association thanks to a deal between Meta and the Hollywood trade body. The social media platform will also add a disclaimer, marking a clear distinction between the MPA’s PG-13 rating and its own variant.
The terms of the agreement will come into effect from April 15.
Late last year, Meta’s Instagram announced teen accounts, including revealing that it would be “guided” by a PG-13 rating. The MPA was angry at the move, as it closely protects its film rating system, and sent a cease-and-desist letter to Meta, calling the use of PG-13 “false and grossly misleading.”
“Today’s agreement clearly distinguishes MPA’s film ratings from Instagram’s teen account content moderation tools,” Charles Rifkin, MPA’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “While we welcome efforts to protect children from content that may not be appropriate for them, this agreement helps ensure that parents do not confuse the two systems – which operate in very different contexts. MPA is proud of the trust we have built with parents nearly sixty years ago through our film rating system, and we will continue to do everything we can to protect that trust.”
A Meta spokesperson added: “We are pleased to reach an agreement with the MPA.” “By taking inspiration from the framework families know, our goal was to help parents better understand our teen content policies. We’ve carefully reviewed these policies against more than 13 movie rating criteria and parent feedback, and updated them and apply them to teen accounts by default. While this isn’t changing, we’ve taken MPA feedback into how we talk about this work. We’ll continue to work to support parents and provide age-appropriate experiences for teens.”
The MPA moved quickly after Instagram announced the ratings, citing its 60-year history of providing ratings for films (the ratings are also trademarked by the group). After sending the legal letter, Meta changed its reference from PG-13 to “Inspired by film ratings for ages 13 and up” and added a disclaimer. The decision announced on Tuesday formalizes this.
“There are a lot of differences between social media and movies,” the new disclaimer reads. “We did not work with the MPA when updating our content settings, and they do not rate any content on Instagram, and do not endorse or approve our content settings in any way. Instead, we took inspiration from the MPA’s general guidelines, which parents are already familiar with. Our content moderation systems are not like a movie rating board, so the experience may not be quite the same.”
