Reform of all social media should come with Meta changes, UN says

All of social media should be designed to be safe for children, the UN human rights chief has said after Meta settled a massive court case in the US.

Part of the deal the tech giant struck with almost all US states was to add more child safety measures - but Meta also called on TikTok and YouTube to add the same features.

The UN's high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk said governments needed to "step up rather than wait for courts and companies to act".

He added: "Children should not have to wait for a lawsuit to be safe online."

Türk said Meta's proposed changes, which include time limits and parental supervision controls, aligned with what he had been calling for - "but we're not there yet".

In May, Türk's office released a 10-point framework for regulating social media , external .

It included steps such as protecting data privacy and focusing on safer platform design, including better methods of verifying a user's age and not exposing such users to addictive design features.

However, the framework rejected the idea that outright bans on social media use for children was a good idea.