MPA demands Meta drop PG-13 framing for Instagram teen settings

The Motion Picture Association has demanded that Meta stop describing Instagram’s new teen account settings as guided by the PG13 movie rating, sending a cease-and-desist letter on Oct. 28 that calls the company’s claims “literally false and highly misleading.” The dispute follows Instagram’s Oct. 14 announcement that users under 18 would be placed by default into a 13 setting intended to limit mature content, a system Meta said was informed by PG13 standards and that parents could override.

In its letter, the film industry trade group said Meta had not contacted it before the announcement and argued that a social media moderation system cannot be equated with the MPA’s human-driven film ratings. The MPA described its ratings as the product of an individualized, consensus-based process in which a board of parents views each film in full before assigning a rating and content descriptors. The association noted that its ratings, including PG13, are registered certification marks and said Meta’s repeated references to PG13 risk confusing consumers, eroding the public trust the MPA says it has built over decades, and unlawfully diluting the trademark.