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. Spiegel was talking to the BBC as Snapchat’s parent Snap Inc announced new features for its upcoming Specs glasses. He said the smart eyewear would use AI to suggest things for people to do based on what the tech learns about their goals, relationships and routines. “Rather than the way that people use chatbots today where you constantly have to ask for stuff, Specs can understand what’s important to you, and then offer recommendations or offer next steps,” he said.
Like other smart glasses, Specs will use AI to let people see digital elements overlaid onto the world. But the tech won’t come cheap – retailing at $2,195 in the US and £1,995 in the UK. “The target audience right now is early adopters of tech and developers as well as enterprise,” Spiegel said. With the device, Snap aims to offer a middle ground between VR headsets like Meta’s Quest 3 and lightweight AI smart glasses offered by rivals which look more like conventional glasses.
“We’re creating a totally new category here,” said Spiegel. “You have a really powerful computer that brings a lot of the immersive capability you see with VR, but they’re also lightweight at just about 130 grams, so they’re very wearable and they have these see-through lenses, so you can use them out in the world.” Specs is Snap’s most recent foray into the wearable tech, coming a decade after its short-lived Spectacles cost the company tens of millions of dollars. The device is also arriving as Meta is facing a significant backlash over its own smart glasses, which are estimated to be the most popular of the market. Some online derisively call them “pervert glasses” over how they have been used to secretly film women, with one person telling the BBC they were filmed leaving the beach, while another said they were told to pay to remove a video of them from the internet.
Nevertheless, sales continue to rise. With seven million pairs having been sold according to Meta. Snap said it has built into the design of Specs, which do not use facial recognition to identify people. A white light flashes at the top of the glasses above the users nose when it is recording video and taking a photo.
The company says that will let people nearby see that recording is happening. Users of Meta glasses have figured out ways to obscure components meant to indicate that a photo or video is being captured, including by tampering with the electronics in the device. Meta says it has remotely disabled the cameras on thousands of its devices on which tampering or destruction of the indicator light was detected. What is AI and how does it work?
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