Under Growing Pressure, the Biggest Social Networks Agree to be Rated on Teen Safety

Three leading social media companies have agreed to undergo independent assessments of how effectively they protect the mental health of teenage users, submitting to a battery of tests announced Tuesday by a coalition of advocacy organizations.

The platforms will be graded on whether they mandate breaks and provide options to turn off endless scrolling, among a host of other measures of their safety policies and transparency commitments. Companies that reviewers rate highly will receive a blue shield badge, while those that fair poorly will be branded as not able to block harmful content. Meta — which operates Facebook and Instagram — TikTok and Snap are first three companies to sign up for the process.

"I hope that by having this new set of standards and ratings it does improve teens' mental health," said Dan Reidenberg, managing director of the National Council for Suicide Prevention (NCSP), who oversaw the development of the standards. "At the same time, I also really hope that it changes the technology companies: that it really helps shape how they design and they build and they implement their tools."

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