Meta expands Teen Account protections worldwide as scrutiny of social media grows

Meta is expanding its teen account safety features globally across its apps including, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. The tech giant is also introducing several new content settings focused and designed for users aged 13 and above. Also Read: Instagram Brings Reels To Your TVs: Here's How It Works, Who Can Use? ALL Details

This decision comes as a part of the company’s strategy to offer age-appropriate experiences to teenagers. The company wants to reduce the exposure of potentially harmful or adult material to teenagers. Also Read: Teens Can Have Customised Instagram Logo Now, Here's How To Update

Meta has also announced a new feature it is testing on Instagram that will stop teens from seeing “the same kinds of content” over and over again, even if that isn’t necessarily bad. Also Read: Instagram’s Cracking Down On Suspicious DMs, Especially For Teens: Here's How

Meta expands teen account safety features

To recall, Enhanced Teen Accounts on Instagram were earlier rolled out in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. The system automatically assigned the teen to a more restrictive content filter that reduces exposure to inappropriate content.

Meta says it has seen 90% of teens stick to its default 13+ setting since the introduction, indicating a strong uptake by young users.

Now the company is looking to expand these protections worldwide on Instagram, Facebook and Messenger.

The new feature aims to minimize the exposure of inappropriate content in Facebook Feed and Reels, and limit interactions with profiles, pages, groups, and events that typically publish mature content.

Additionally, Messenger users with Teen Accounts will be unable to see links to inappropriate Facebook content and will not be able to interact with accounts that post age inappropriate content regularly.

Later this year, an even more strict feature called “Limited Content” setting will be added to Facebook and Messenger, confirms Meta.

Instagram testing out a new way to diversify its content recommendations

Meta is also trying out a new feature that will stop teens from viewing the same content categories several times, in addition to the worldwide rollout.

The company said some other subjects, like nutrition, fitness, weightlifting, or anxiety, may be beneficial and informative to teens. Meta, however, thinks that viewing a lot of the same content continuously may not be a balanced experience.

The experimental feature will thus try to add some variety to recommendations in Explore, Feed and Reels.

The idea is to give them more diverse content instead of falling into the “filter bubble”.

Parent feedback is important

According to Meta, parents have been a key part in informing their policy on Teen Accounts.

The company said it has received hundreds of thousands of parents to read and rate over 15 million pieces of content recommended to teens on their platforms globally.

Research by Meta found just under two percent of its recommendations to teens in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom were deemed inappropriate by most parents in its latest survey, conducted in April.

The company believes these findings are a sign that things are going well with its content moderation and recommendation systems.

Teen Accounts reduce and block mature content

Meta is sending a third-party evaluation report to Alice, an online safety research group that used to be called ActiveFence, to assess the quality of the Teen Account features.

The researchers compared the content experiences of Instagram Teen Accounts, the competition social platforms and the content they usually see in a movie that’s rated for an older audience.

The findings show that 68 percent fewer mature content was seen by Instagram Teen Accounts when the platform was set to 13+ compared to a rival platform.

For teen users, those who opted for Limited Content mode used the service nine times less than those who went with the tougher service, with 96 percent less mature content.

The report also revealed that mature content that’s there for viewing on Instagram is typically not as strong on Instagram as it is on other platforms.

Furthermore, Instagram reportedly used to search for mature content less often and also used to impose restrictions on teen users changing the content settings without parental consent.

Areas to be improved

The assessment overall was positive about the safety of Meta, but it also noted some areas that need to be paid more attention.

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A problem was a few accounts that were consistently posting age-inappropriate content that didn’t trigger Instagram’s systems to pick it up. Meta says it improved its detection mechanisms after figuring out the problem and subsequent testing showed that it worked.