Meta Parents Teens
Earlier in January, Meta announced that it would be restricting the algorithms on both Facebook and Instagram from showing sensitive content to teens aged 18 or 16 and below across the world. Following up on those actions, Meta has introduced a newer restriction from anyone randomly sending DMs to teens. Teens on the platform shall not be approachable by anyone via DMs based on the geographical locations and their norms considered as teens either 16 or 18 years of age and below.
These restrictions are a welcome addition to the already existing restrictions on showing sensitive content to teenage users on both Instagram and Facebook. Anyone who does not exist in the friends or followers list, would not be allowed to text teen users on the said platforms. These stricter guidelines on private messaging are a good move towards safeguarding teens from the horrors of social media psychopaths. These restrictions shall be on the teen’s app end and shall be restricting texts or media from unknown people.
People allowed to connect with the teens on Instagram and Facebook will only be people in their contact list on these social media platforms or on their phones connected to the teens on the same mediums. Meta also wishes to restrict messages via AI technology, considering sensitive content could also be shared by people in the teen’s contact list on social media. It’s not like teens do not know workarounds, but a system-level restriction safeguards most teens from creeps on the internet.