California, USA – Meta announced the expansion of its teen protection settings across its digital platforms worldwide, including Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger.
This move aims to limit young users’ access to inappropriate content and enhance their digital safety.
Expanding protection settings for teenagers
The company confirmed that these measures are part of its efforts to ensure a more suitable experience for teenagers.
This comes at a time when social media platforms are facing increasing scrutiny from regulators
and governments regarding their impact on the mental health of children and adolescents.
The company explained that privacy settings for users under 18 will be enabled by default.
This includes a content rating of “13+”, which aims to reduce the exposure to material that may be considered inappropriate for teenagers.
It also announced that the “Restricted Content” feature will be expanded to Facebook
and Messenger in the near future. This follows its implementation on Instagram.
A new feature and increasing regulatory pressures
Meta revealed that it is testing a new feature on Instagram aimed at limiting repeated exposure
to a single type of content. This will provide teenage users with a more balanced experience.
The company indicated that some topics, such as nutrition, sports, and mental health,
may be beneficial to users. However, these topics should not overwhelm the content presented to them.
This move comes amid increasing legal and regulatory pressure
on major technology companies regarding the protection of children online.
Recently, several countries have seen calls from governments and legislatures
to impose further restrictions on minors’ access to social media platforms.
Simultaneously, some countries have begun implementing new laws aimed at strengthening
the protection of children from harmful content and the negative effects of excessive use of these platforms.
