The Motion Picture Association has sent a cease and desist letter to Meta in an effort to get the social media company to stop associating itself with the MPA brand, TheWrap has learned.
The legal move comes a month after the parent company of Facebook and Instagram announced it would impose content restrictions on teens’ accounts with a system “guided by PG-13 movie ratings.”
However, MPA insists that its human-driven methodology cannot be replicated by AI or any other technical process. They demand that Meta immediately and permanently stop exploiting the rating mark and implement a series of corrective measures.
“MPA ratings are determined by an organic, consensus-based process driven by an independent group of parents who view a film in its entirety and evaluate various factors in its context. Meta’s attempts to restrict teen content literally cannot be ‘guided by’ or ‘aligned with’ the MPA’s PG-13 film rating because Meta does not follow this organized process,” reads the cease-and-desist letter, obtained by TheWrap. “Instead, Meta’s content restrictions appear to rely heavily on artificial intelligence or other automated technological measures.”
“The MPA has worked for decades to gain public trust in its ratings system. Meta’s assertion that its teen accounts will be ‘guided by’ or ‘aligned with’ MPA’s PG-13 rating and that content on teen accounts will be ‘similar to’ what would be seen in a PG-13 movie has the real potential to erode that trust,” he added.
Meta, meanwhile, said she never suggested the accounts would be officially certified by the MPA. “Parents tell us they want to better understand what their teens see on Instagram. To make things easier for them, we’ve updated our teen content policies to bring them closer to the PG-13 movie standards parents are already familiar with,” the company told TheWrap in a statement released Wednesday. “We know that social media is not the same as movies, but we made this change to support parents, and we hope to work with the MPA to continue to bring this clarity to families.”
They also noted that the PG-13 references were made in good faith, remain accurate, and were made with transparent guidelines shared through their newsroom — plus, they claim this all qualifies as “nominative fair use according to well-established principles.”
The privacy update, which was still rolling out globally before the letter, prevents teens from following age-inappropriate accounts, searching for terms like “suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders,” opening questionable links via DM, or receiving inappropriate responses from the AI.
“Just like you might see suggestive content or hear strong language in a PG-13 movie, teens may occasionally see something like this on Instagram – but we’re going to continue to do everything we can to keep these instances as rare as possible,” Meta announced in October. “We recognize that no system is perfect and we are committed to improving over time. »
“The Motion Picture Association was not contacted by Meta prior to the announcement of its new content moderation tool for Instagram Teen accounts,” the MPA initially responded. “We welcome efforts to protect children from content that may not be suitable for them, but claims that Instagram’s new tool will be ‘guided by PG-13 movie ratings’ or have any connection to the film industry’s rating system are inaccurate.”
