Meta is taking out full page newspaper ads begging TikTok and YouTube to protect kids too

Meta just spent a chunk of an $18 billion settlement on full page newspaper ads, and the target isn't its own users. It's TikTok and YouTube.

The ads ran on Friday 28 August in the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, reprinting an open letter that frames Meta's new teen safety rules as the "new industry standard" and dares its rivals to match them.

The backstory: Meta settled a multistate lawsuit over teen social media addiction for up to $18 billion on 26 August. As part of the deal, Instagram and Facebook now have to cap teen accounts at two hours of daily use, block the apps and push notifications late at night and during school hours and nudge teens every 15 minutes to log off.

Here's the part that makes the ad campaign make sense. Roughly $5.3 billion of that settlement is contingent, meaning Meta only pays it if TikTok and YouTube also introduce a one-hour daily limit, night mode and age checks, and each chip in a matching amount.

So the open letter isn't really altruism. It's Meta trying to avoid being the only platform stuck restricting its own product while teenagers simply migrate to whichever app doesn't have a curfew. The letter says as much: "when teens are restricted on one app, they simply move to another."

So far, TikTok and Google, which owns YouTube, have said precisely nothing in response.

It's a strange spot for Meta to be in. The company that spent the best part of a decade fighting off "Instagram is bad for teen mental health" headlines is now the one publicly demanding stricter rules, purely because it will be cheaper that way.

Whether TikTok and YouTube actually bite is the real story here. If they hold out, Meta pockets the saving and gets to look like the responsible one anyway. Watch this space, because $5.3 billion is a very expensive game of chicken.