Committee publication · Correspondence · 19 May 2026
Letter from Meta on Screen Time and Social Media dated 08.05.26
From: Education Committee
Inquiry: Screen Time and Social Media
Summary
Meta's response to the Education Committee's inquiry on children's screen time and social media use. Meta defends its safeguarding approach, emphasizing Teen Accounts (automatic strict settings for under-18s), proactive detection systems that disabled 4.4 million accounts globally in 2025, and algorithmic tools designed for child safety rather than engagement. The company challenges NSPCC grooming data characterization and argues time spent is not the best harm metric.
Key findings
- Meta introduced Instagram Teen Accounts in September 2024, automatically placing under-18s in private accounts with strict messaging, limited contact, and default 60-minute daily time reminders plus Sleep Mode (10pm–7am).
- Meta's share of UK grooming prosecutions fell from 54% (2017/18) to 24%, which Meta attributes to system effectiveness; company proactively detected and disabled 1.9 million Facebook and 2.5 million Instagram accounts globally in 2025 for suspicious behaviour signals.
- Meta declined to publish average time-spent data, arguing time is not the best proxy for harm; instead emphasizes parental controls allowing hard limits as low as 15 minutes daily and non-dismissable scheduled breaks.
- 75% of users who received warning messages after searching for child-exploitation terms did not repeat the search, measured as behavioural change rather than reporting volume alone.
- Meta removed hateful conduct including misogynistic content; banned individuals including Andrew Tate; Teen Accounts default to strictest sensitive-content control (PG-13 equivalent) to limit algorithmic amplification of harmful material.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Meta, Rebecca Stimson, Helen Hayes MP, Education Select Committee, NSPCC, Ofcom, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Andrew Tate
Notable line
“… we do not optimise for teen time spent on our platforms. In fact, our recent product changes deliberately seek to give teens and parents the tools to manage and reduce their time online.”
Key Quotes
“Ensuring that young people have safe, age-appropriate experiences on our apps is an absolute priority for Meta.”
“… we do not optimise for teen time spent on our platforms. In fact, our recent product changes deliberately seek to give teens and parents the tools to manage and reduce their time online.”
“The data from the NSPCC's annual FOI request to police forces actually shows that Meta has had the biggest drop in UK grooming prosecutions of any platform over recent years. Our share has fallen from 54% in 2017/18 to 24% today.”
“In 2025 alone, we automatically disabled more than 1.9 million Facebook accounts and more than 2.5 million Instagram accounts globally for showing signals of potentially suspicious behaviour.”
“Our internal analysis of search-warning interventions found that 75% of users who received a warning message after attempting to search for child-exploitation terms did not search for that term again …”
“Human review is explicitly preserved for the most severe areas that involve reports to law enforcement, such as child safety, credible threats of violence, and exploitation.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗