Snapchat 'willing to implement' daily time limits for teens, boss tells BBC

Snapchat boss says firm is 'willing to implement' daily time limits for teens, BBC told

The head of Snapchat says the company would be "willing to implement" time limits for teenagers, after Meta urged it to take action.

In an interview with the BBC at the company’s California headquarters, Evan Spiegel said he thought setting a cap on how much time young users could spend on the app could be "an important step forward for the industry."

His remarks came as the company unveiled a range of new features for its upcoming Specs glasses, which it said could link with Apple iPhone and Mac devices.

Meta has been pushing other social media firms 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 owner Meta faced allegations from Attorneys General representing most US states, who said the company deliberately designed its apps to be addictive to young users.

It agreed to pay $12.7bn and introduce a two-hour daily limit for teen users across its platforms by default, along with 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 the deal, which will be paid over a 10-year period, Meta has denied any wrongdoing.

Last month, a Meta spokesperson said it was hopeful Snap would also make similar platform changes.

Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap have all faced a wave of lawsuits claiming their apps have contributed to a youth mental health crisis.

Snap has also been accused of helping facilitate illegal drug sales.

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."

However, Spiegel did not say when Snap might act.

"That's something we've talked about internally," he said. "I don't have more to share today."

He pointed out that Snap offers tools through its Family Center feature, which currently allows parents to monitor some aspects of how their teens use Snapchat.

"We want to figure out how we can be part of the solution," Spiegel added.

When asked whether it planned to adopt the measures in Meta's settlement, YouTube parent Google said it had no comment. TikTok did not reply to the BBC's request for comment.

Spiegel was speaking to the BBC as Snapchat 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 technology 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 allow people to see digital elements overlaid on the world.

But the technology will not be cheap, with a US retail price of $2,195 and a UK price of £1,995.

"The target audience right now is early adopters of tech and developers as well as enterprise," Spiegel said.

The company wants people to use the glasses for a range of tasks, including streaming video, and says they can provide live translation in 60 languages.

With the device, Snap aims to strike a middle ground between VR headsets such as Meta's Quest 3 and lightweight AI smart glasses from rivals that look more like ordinary 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 latest move into wearable tech, arriving a decade after its short-lived Spectacles cost the company tens of millions of dollars.

Meta is facing major backlash over its own smart glasses, which are estimated to be the market's most popular.

Even so, sales keep rising, with seven million pairs 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 user's nose when it is recording video and taking a photo.

The company says this will let people nearby see that recording is taking place.

Users of Meta glasses have found ways to hide components intended to show when a photo or video is being captured, including by tampering with the device's electronics.

Meta says it has remotely disabled the cameras on thousands of its devices where tampering or destruction of the indicator light was detected.