New safety features enhance teen protection on Instagram and Facebook
Meta has introduced a range of updates aimed at enhancing safety measures for teenagers on Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. These updates are designed to help ensure teens are safeguarded with appropriate protections, give parents better insights into their teen’s online activities, and broaden measures supporting teen wellbeing.
Age-appropriate content settings for teens globally
Instagram’s 13+ content rating has recently been implemented in India and is now available globally for teen accounts on Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. Facebook’s 13+ default setting aims to conceal content inappropriate for teens in spaces like Feed and Reels and restrict teens’ interactions with Profiles, Pages, Groups, and Events that often share unsuitable content. The intention is for teens to encounter content comparable to that in age-suitable films by default. On Messenger, the 13+ setting minimizes teens’ exposure to unsuitable Facebook links or accounts sharing such content.
AI-driven age verification for suitable experiences
Efforts continue to develop advanced AI that identifies underage accounts by assessing more than just age declarations. This involves AI technology analyzing profiles for contextual hints like birthday celebrations or school grade mentions to ascertain an account’s likely age group. Various signals such as posts, comments, bios, and captions are assessed, with plans to expand this technology across Instagram Reels, Instagram Live, and Facebook Groups.
Visual analysis is being introduced as a new technique to support detection. This method allows AI to evaluate photos and videos for visual hints about a person’s age that text might overlook. This is not facial recognition; the AI estimates a person’s general age based on themes like height or bone structure without identifying individuals. By integrating these visual and textual insights, the number of underage accounts identified and removed can be significantly increased.
Parental alerts for teens who may need support
Instagram will alert parents using supervision if their teen repeatedly searches for terms linked to suicide or self-harm over a short period. This feature, part of Instagram’s protection for teen accounts, will be available to supervising parents in the EU, Brazil, and India. Notifications will be sent to both parents and teens to inform them about these alerts.
Family Center: centralize management of teen online activities
Parents with teens under supervision can now manage their activities from the Family Center — a centralized hub to oversee their teen’s activity across Instagram, Meta Horizon, Facebook, and Messenger without switching between apps and settings. Parents can set up supervision by visiting familycenter.meta.com/supervision. In upcoming months, parents will also gain a comprehensive view of their teen’s activity across Meta apps, including aggregated time spent.
