[shaftway]

I feel like there are some key differences between the companies though.

The second one outlined for Meta is:

> Heavily-redacted undated internal document discussing “School Blasts” as a strategy for gaining more high school users (mass notifications sent during the school day).

This sounds a lot like Meta being intentionally disruptive.

The first one outlined for YouTube is:

> Slidedeck on the role that YouTube’s autoplay feature plays in “Tech Addiction” that concludes “Verdict: Autoplay could be potentially disrupting sleep patterns. Disabling or limiting Autoplay during the night could result in sleep savings.”

This sounds like YouTube proactively looking for solutions to a problem. And later on for YouTube:

> Discussing efforts to improve digital well-being, particularly among youth. Identified three concern areas impacting users 13-24 disproportionately: habitual heavy use, late night use, and unintentional use.

This sounds like YouTube taking actual steps to improve the situation.

[probably_wrong]

> This sounds like YouTube taking actual steps to improve the situation.

The issue I take with statements like that is that they are saying one thing while doing the opposite. This document [1], for instance, shows that YouTube knew as early as April 2025 that infinite feeds of short form content can "displace valuable activities like time with friends or sleep", but that hasn't stopped them from aggressively pushing YouTube shorts everywhere.

The most charitable interpretation I can think of is that there are two factions, one worried about the effects of YouTube in teens and a second one worried about growth at all costs. And I don't think the first one is winning.

[1] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.40...

[shaftway]

I think the reality for any product that has >7,000 employees working on it is that some people's job is to prioritize growth at all costs, some people's job is to prioritize the effects of on vulnerable people, and the vast majority of them have other jobs to be doing. This sounds appropriate to me; not everybody can be worried about mental health at all times, and somebody needs to focus on growth.

There are plenty of examples that the mental health people aren't being completely steamrolled. Parental controls allow you to block Shorts for your kids. That doesn't sound like a "growth at all costs" mindset.

[1bpp]

My YouTube use definitely isn't healthy, but it's still the only social app that asks me to take a break if I use it too long or late at night. That should be standard in any of these apps.

[nico]

I get those on TikTok. There’s a video of someone asking if you’ve been scrolling/watching for too long and recommending to take a break

[silverquiet]

Does it recommend taking a break? Mostly I've seen it ask if I'm still watching. I've always assumed this is not for user benefit, but in order to not spend bandwidth on a screen that is not being looked at.

The only site I'm familiar with that has somewhat decent self-limiting functions built in is HN's no procrastination settings. But that's of course because HN isn't run to make money, but as a hobby.

[weare138]

Youtube isn't doing that for your health. It's so they're not wasting ads and bandwidth on users who aren't watching anymore to maximize their profits. The sole purpose of a for-profit corporation is to generate revenue for its owners and shareholders. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. Do not expect anything different. Corporations only care so long as its profitable.

[miltonlost]

Earthbound even did this on the SNES back in 1994

[irae]

Instagram has it as a tool, not as default. You need to actively go, find, and enable timeframes for it to alert within your rest period.

[iwontberude]

What country are you in? I have never seen this in the US although I have been a very long time subscriber to YouTube Premium.

[ryeights]

TikTok does this as well.

[jacquesm]

No, it sounds like youtube being fully aware of the consequences of their offering but couched in terms that allows them to pretend they were not. 'could' indeed.

[corranh]

With the looping TikTok-style shorts, YouTube seems to be more habit forming than ever.

[nisegami]

Not realistic to reply to all your replies re:youtube, but they've absolutely added some features to mitigate bedtime use and at least for me they were opt-out rather than opt-in.

[stubish]

I guess some companies try to limit the harm they do to children while profiting, and some companies try not to know the harm they do to children while profiting. What remains to be seen is how much harm we allow to be done to children in the name of profits. Maybe we even insist that things need to be a positive influence. Less profit, but maybe better to the economy over all. And the kids, if they matter.

[irae]

I believe the whole point is that some people inside acknowledge the issue, made leadership aware of it, yet, youtube still pushed sorts aggressively. The documents are prof of awareness, so they can't pretend they were unaware of the issues.

[ares623]

Are they taking actual steps though? Or was that letting a team do the work to make them feel better but never actually implementing it.

[jhhh]

YouTube Shorts exist, which they brag about hours watched, so I don't think they really care about those things at all.

[freejazz]

>This sounds like YouTube taking actual steps to improve the situation.

Maybe if they actually did any of those things...

[micromacrofoot]

> This sounds like YouTube taking actual steps to improve the situation.

And yet here we are years later without change. So we've got proof that they knew this and have done nothing. Don't need to speculate at all.

[rafram]

No, they actually added a bedtime reminder feature for all users that they couldn't verify to be adults: https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1pmcr04/what_the_h...