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On August 26th, Meta reached a settlement with 47 states, the District of Columbia, and three U.S. territories regarding allegations that its products have harmed children and teenagers.

Meta will pay at least $12.1 billion and potentially up to $17.1 billion over the next decade. That is a lot of money for most of us, but not particularly a lot for Meta.

Two changes are specifically relevant to sleep health. The first is a nighttime block restricting access to feeds between midnight and 6 AM. The second is turning off notifications between 10 PM and 7 AM.

Although I think this is a step in the right direction, I really would not recommend that parents or teens rely on the goodwill of tech companies and their oligarch owners to keep them safe or help them sleep well.

I would not rely on your teen's willpower to keep them from using their cell phones at night. You need to have custody of the phones. How good are you at not picking up your phone when it's in your pocket? Honestly, I struggle with it. Your teenagers may struggle even more.

And there is evidence supporting this approach: bedroom access to phones and other portable media devices is associated with shorter sleep, poorer sleep quality, and greater daytime sleepiness.

A large JAMA Pediatrics systematic review and meta-analysis found associations not only with bedtime device use, but even with simply having access to a device at bedtime. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...