The Motion Picture Association (MPA), which oversees the movie rating system in Hollywood, has sent a cease and desist notice to Meta, insisting that the company refrain from using the MPA’s PG-13 label in its teen safety initiatives.

In a correspondence to Meta’s chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead dated Oct. 28, the MPA asserts that Meta’s employment of the PG-13 rating is “literally false and highly misleading,” constituting false advertising and dilution of the trademark. The letter conveys, “The MPA has spent decades gaining the public’s confidence in its rating system. Any discontent with Meta’s automatic categorization will inevitably lead the public to scrutinize the credibility of the MPA’s rating system.”

The MPA pointed out that it had earlier declined similar requests from Meta’s rivals.

On Oct. 14, Meta revealed a significant revision of its parental control and content moderation features for younger users, named Teen Accounts. The updated capabilities featured age-appropriate filters that Meta asserted reflected MPA ratings, such as brief nudity, minor violence, profanity, and drug or alcohol usage. This followed investigations into the company’s measures for youth safety and a report that highlighted shortcomings in prior safety tools.

The MPA released a statement condemning Meta’s implementation of the PG-13 label without prior discussion: “The Motion Picture Association was not consulted by Meta before the announcement of its new content moderation feature for Instagram Teen Accounts. We commend initiatives aimed at shielding children from potentially unsuitable content, but claims that Instagram’s new tool will be ‘guided by PG-13 movie ratings’ or related to the film industry’s rating system are incorrect.”

The letter goes on to argue that Meta’s AI-driven content moderation does not adhere to the human standards of the MPA ratings system, which depends on input from independent panels of parents. “Meta’s efforts to limit teen content cannot literally be ‘guided by’ or ‘aligned with’ the MPA’s PG-13 movie rating because Meta does not adhere to [the MPA’s] curated process,” it emphasizes.

Meta maintains that it did not assert that the new safety features were MPA-approved and that the utilization of “PG-13” falls within fair use. A Meta spokesperson commented, “To simplify things for them, we revised our teen content policies to align more closely with PG-13 movie standards—which parents are already familiar with. We understand that social media is not the same as movies, but we implemented this change to assist parents, and we hope to collaborate with the MPA to continue providing clarity to families.”

The MPA represents major film studios, including Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Walt Disney Studios.