The boss of Snapchat says the firm would be “willing to implement” time limits for teens, following a call from Meta for it to take action.
Evan Spiegel told the BBC in an interview at the company’s California headquarters that he believed setting a maximum amount of time that young users could spend on the app could be “an important step forward for the industry.”
His comments came as the firm revealed a slew of new features for its upcoming Specs glasses, which it said could connect to Apple iPhone and Mac devices.
Meta has been pressuring other social media companies to join it in making platform changes it agreed to as part of a recent multi-billion dollar legal settlement with US states.
Instagram and Facebook-parent Meta was facing allegations from Attorneys General for most US states who said the firm deliberately designed its apps to be addictive to young users.
It agreed to pay $12.7bn and implement a two-hour daily limit for teen users across its platforms by default, in addition to muted notifications during school hours, blocks at night and other measures.
“I think it is an important step forward in the industry in terms of really identifying industry norms, and I think that would be beneficial overall,” Spiegel told the BBC. “We’ve looked really thoughtfully at the terms.”
As part of Meta’s August settlement, the company said it would implement even more stringent time limits and pay an additional $5.3bn if YouTube and TikTok follow suit. It has denied any wrongdoing as part of the deal, which will be paid over a 10-year period.
Last month, a Meta spokesperson said it was hopeful that Snap would make similar platform changes as well.
Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap have all faced a barrage of litigation alleging their apps have helped spawn a youth mental health crisis. Snap has also been accused of facilitating illegal drug sales.
When asked about the idea of a default time limit, Spiegel said: “I think that’s a really good example of something that that we’d be willing to implement.”
But Spiegel did not commit to a timeline on when Snap might take action.
“That’s something we’ve talked about internally,” he said. “I don’t have more to share today.”
He noted that Snap offers tools through its Family Center feature, which currently enables parents to track aspects of how their teens are using Snapchat.
“We want to figure out how we can be part of the solution,” Spiegel added.
YouTube-parent Google said it had no comment when asked if it planned to implement the measures in Meta’s settlement. TikTok did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
