Meta, on Wednesday, unveiled the latest efforts it’s making to bolster the safety of teens and kids on its social media apps. The company has touted these new features for Instagram and Facebook in a blog post, most notably adding more information and warnings about accounts teens might try to contact via direct messages.
«We’ve added new safety features to DMs in Teen Accounts to give teens more context about the accounts they’re messaging and help them spot potential scammers,» the post explained. «Now, teens will see new options to view safety tips and block an account, as well as the month and year the account joined Instagram, all prominently displayed at the top of new chats.»
DMs have also been given new block and report function, which Meta claims will allow and encourage users to do both at the same time when they run into sketchy accounts.
The company also reported that in June, 1 million Teen Accounts reported or blocked accounts, and another 1 million used the Location Notice feature to see if an account messaging them was in a different country.
Meta has faced many accusations over the years about the effects its platforms have on minors. Just last year, bombshell accusations emerged from a memoir by a Meta whistleblower, claiming that the company served ads to teenagers based on their emotional states.
Meta denied those claims, but has taken steps in recent years to offer improved safety features for underage users on its platforms, built around new «Teen Accounts,» which limit the ability of young users to be contacted and to see certain content.
Meta will also be rolling out similar protections for accounts run by adults that share a great deal of content related to children, such as those who post pictures and videos of their children, and accounts for children managed by their parents. The blog post explained that while such accounts «are overwhelmingly used in benign ways, unfortunately there are people who may try to abuse them, leaving sexualized comments under their posts or asking for sexual images in DMs.»
For those family blogging-style accounts, Meta is extending protections including, «automatically placing these accounts into our strictest message settings to prevent unwanted messages, and turning on Hidden Words, which filters offensive comments.»
The changes will be rolling out in the next few months. Meta did not respond to a request for further comment prior to publication.
