Meta, the parent company behind Facebook and Instagram, is currently developing new features for minors. The idea is to make their social media platforms a safer space for teenagers.

Last Monday, Meta revealed some of these measures. The company wants to prevent teens from interacting with suspicious adults. Either that have been blocked or reported by other teenagers on Facebook and Instagram. 

The company said it will remove these suspicious profile accounts from recommendations. They also mentioned a future project in which these suspicious accounts won’t be able to see the direct message button when they visit a teenager’s profile. 

These new tools are Meta’s latest effort to protect teens from receiving inappropriate messages and content from adults. Online safety for minors has always been a concern when it comes to social media platforms.

However, advocacy groups and a series of politicians have been putting more pressure on Meta to effectively address this issue. Meta also mentioned it’s working closely with teenagers who are worried about their intimate images being exposed without consent. 

In a blog post, the company stated that they understand how traumatic the non-consensual sharing of intimate images can be. They are looking into different ways to discourage teenagers from sharing such images on their platforms as well. 

Meta also said it’s teaming up with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to build a global platform for teenagers to address these concerns. The company also provides tips on their website for teenagers in case someone asks them for inappropriate photos or videos of themselves. 

The company behind Facebook and Instagram said it now has a safety notice on both platforms. It shows teenagers which steps they can take against an unwanted account such as blocking, restricting their access or reporting them. 

The safety notice also encourages minors to report these suspicious accounts directly to Meta. The company said that during the first three months of 2022, there was a 70% increase in reports sent by teenagers compared to the last months of 2021. 

Now, whenever someone under the age of 16 joins Facebook, Meta said they will have more private settings by default. The platform already allows users to limit who has access to their friends list and accounts they follow. 

They can also review a post they have been tagged to before it appears in their home page. In 2021, Instagram implemented a feature that makes all teenagers’ accounts private by default as soon as they create them. 

Since June this year, Instagram has updated its Sensitive Control features to provide users with more control of what they want to see in the social media app. Check the following link to learn how it works and how you can tailor your Instagram page to your liking.