The Motion Picture Association (MPA), the trade association behind Hollywood's movie rating system, has sent an official cease and desist letter to tech giant Meta, demanding the company halt the use of the MPA's PG-13 designation in its new teen safety features.
In a letter sent to Meta chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead on Oct. 28, the MPA argues that Meta's use of the PG-13 movie rating is "literally false and highly misleading," constituting false advertising and a dilution of the MPA trademark. "The MPA has worked for decades to earn the public’s trust in its rating system. Any dissatisfaction with Meta’s automated classification will inevitably cause the public to question the integrity of the MPA’s rating system," the letter contends.
The MPA explained that they had previously denied requests to use the ratings system from Meta's competitors.
On Oct. 14, Meta announced an overhaul of its parental control and content moderation settings for young users, known as Teen Accounts. In addition to new oversight tools and AI guidelines, the new features included age-appropriate filters that Meta argued reflected the same level of content exposure as MPA ratings, such as brief nudity and minor violence, expletives, and drug or alcohol use. The move came after numerous investigations into the company's youth safety prerogatives, and a recent report that found many of the company's previous safety tools had failed under stress testing.
The MPA issued a statement shortly after, taking issue with the company's use of the PG-13 designation without prior consultation:
"The Motion Picture Association was not contacted by Meta prior to the announcement of its new content moderation tool for Instagram Teen Accounts. We welcome efforts to protect kids from content that may not be appropriate for them, but assertions 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.”
In the recent letter, the association added that Meta's reliance on automatic, AI-powered content moderation fails to meet the same human standards as the MPA ratings system, which relies on feedback from independent panels of parents. "Meta’s attempts to restrict teen content literally cannot be ‘guided by’ or ‘aligned with’ the MPA’s PG-13 movie rating because Meta does not follow [the MPA’s] curated process," it reads.
The letter argues that Meta is exploiting the established standards built by the MPA to win back trust with consumers.
Meta, meanwhile, argues that it did not claim that the new safety features were certified by the MPA and that the inclusion of "PG-13" qualifies under fair use. "To make things simpler for them, we updated our teen content policies to be closer to PG-13 movie standards—which parents already know. We know social media isn’t the same as movies, but we made this change to support parents, and we hope to work with the MPA to continue bringing families this clarity," said a Meta spokesperson.
The MPA represents major film studios, including Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Walt Disney Studios.
