Meta announced stricter message settings for teens on Instagram and Facebook. The new settings aim to restrict adults over 19 from messaging teens who do not follow them on social media platforms.
Under the new default settings teens can only be messaged or added to group chats by people they already follow or are connected to. Additionally, Teens in supervised accounts will need to get their parent’s permission to change this setting.
The new default settings will apply to users under the age of 16 (or under 18 in certain countries). Those already on Instagram will see a notification at the top of their Feed letting them know about the changes to their message settings.
Meta announced it will launch a new feature designed to help protect teens from seeing unwanted and potentially inappropriate images in their messages from people they’re already connected to, and to discourage them from sending these types of images themselves. We’ll have more to share on this feature, which will also work in encrypted chats, later this year.
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Parents using supervision on Instagram and Facebook will also be prompted to approve or deny their teens’ (under 16) requests to change their default safety and privacy settings to a less strict state - rather than just being notified of the change.
Meta is also making changes to teens’ default settings on Messenger, where under 16s (or under 18 in certain countries) will only receive messages from Facebook friends, or people they’re connected to through phone contacts.
Published - January 25, 2024 04:34 pm IST
