The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Meta Platforms, demanding that the company stop using the term “PG-13” to describe content filters on teen Instagram accounts, in what has become the latest flare-up in a wave of legal warnings sweeping across the tech and entertainment industries.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the MPA objected to Meta’s announcement last month that teen accounts on Instagram would, by default, only see content aligned with PG-13 movie rating standards. The association called Meta’s language “literally false and highly misleading,” saying the company’s content moderation system, which relies heavily on artificial intelligence, could not be compared to the film industry’s manually curated rating system.
“The MPA has worked for decades to earn the public’s trust in its rating system,” the letter stated. “Any dissatisfaction with Meta’s automated classification will inevitably cause the public to question the integrity of the MPA’s rating system.”
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Meta responded that it had not claimed official certification or endorsement from the MPA, arguing instead that its teen settings are merely “guided by PG-13 principles”. The company also said its use of the term falls under fair use, adding that the goal is to give parents and teens a clear sense of what type of content may appear in their feeds.
A Growing Wave of Cease-and-Desist Letters
The MPA’s action comes amid what many have called a “cease-and-desist season”, as the expansion of AI training and content moderation technologies fuels new disputes over copyright, branding, and data use.
In the past year, major media and entertainment companies have ramped up legal warnings against tech firms they accuse of overstepping intellectual property boundaries in the race to train large AI models or adopt creative industry terminology.
In January, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of “massive copyright infringement” by allegedly using millions of its news articles to train ChatGPT and other AI products without permission. The Times had earlier sent cease-and-desist letters to both companies before pursuing legal action.
Similarly, in April, Getty Images sent a cease-and-desist letter to Stability AI, alleging that the company scraped millions of copyrighted photos from its library to train the Stable Diffusion image generator. The dispute eventually escalated into a full-fledged lawsuit in the U.K., with Getty accusing Stability AI of “blatant theft.”
Music labels have also joined the fray. Earlier this year, Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony Music Entertainment sent cease-and-desist letters to several AI startups, including Sunno and Udio, over alleged use of copyrighted music in training data. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) warned that AI models cloning artists’ voices or styles without authorization would face legal action.
It is believed that the MPA’s move against Meta reflects broader anxieties about authenticity and control as AI systems increasingly blur the boundaries between creative labeling, moderation, and certification. While Meta’s use of “PG-13” appears minor compared to large-scale copyright disputes, it strikes at a symbolic issue — who gets to define what’s “safe” or “appropriate” in the digital era.
The MPA’s film ratings, introduced in 1968, have long served as the U.S. standard for movie classification, influencing global media regulation. Meta’s use of “PG-13” in a digital context — one driven by automated AI moderation — is seen from a legal point of view to represent an unprecedented overlap between cinematic and social media governance.
The confrontation adds to a growing list of content-related controversies as Meta navigates the complex intersection of AI moderation, youth safety, and branding. However, for the MPA, it’s a defensive line drawn to preserve a half-century-old system in an era when artificial intelligence increasingly challenges traditional cultural gatekeepers.