Meta announced today that it was beefing up security for teen accounts on Instagram, as well as imposing some stricter features on accounts that primarily feature children, even if they’re run by adults. It’s a big change, and an extremely necessary one for a platform ripe with issues.
This is aimed at children under 13 who aren’t technically allowed to sign up to Instagram according to the app’s terms and conditions, but whose parents have created an account and manage it for them anyway. Meta reckons these accounts are mostly harmless, though they do tend to draw out a certain type of person. You can guess who we mean.
Better safe than sorry
Over the coming months, Meta will automatically place these parent-led accounts under Meta’s “strictest message settings” to help block any unwanted DMs. The company’s “Hidden Words” setting will also be turned on, filtering out any “offensive” comments. These accounts will be warned of these updated settings at the top of their Instagram feed once the changes are live, with a prompt to review their account’s safety settings too.
Meta’s also working on a solution that’ll mean fewer teen accounts and parent-run child accounts are ever recommended to these unsavoury adult accounts, altering the algorithm depending on whether they’ve been blocked by numerous teen accounts already. If multiple teen accounts have blocked you, Meta will rightfully assume you’re the problem. It’s also making it harder for these accounts to even show up in a search.
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Instagram’s teen accounts will gain new “Safety Tips” — displayed at the top of a conversation inside DMs. Clicking this screen will bring up a list of buttons allowing the user to restrict, block, or report the user. Or, if you’d rather report and block simultaneously, Meta is also launching a button that combines the two.
Better yet, it seems Meta’s more recent additions to protect child safety on the platform have already led to some decent results. The company states it’s already removed more than 130,000 accounts for leaving offensive and sexual comments on these accounts, or has requested private images through DMs.
“We also removed an additional 500,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts that were linked to those original accounts,” it said.
