Meta’s Attempts to Use ‘PG-13′ Content Ratings Immediately Backfires

The Motion Picture Association has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Instagram’s parent company Meta over the social network’s use of the “PG-13” label for teen accounts. The MPA says that Meta’s description of teen content as “similar to what you’d see in a PG-13 movie” is “literally false and highly misleading.” The trade body argues its rating system is official and built on a curated process, while Meta’s teen filtering relies on automated tools rather than the MPA’s ratings board. Meta says it never claimed the designation was MPA-certified, and that its use of the familiar term falls under fair use. Instagram announced the teen content change earlier this year, saying it wanted to align with what parents already understand by a PG-13 rating. That move came after a software “bug” caus