Minors better protected on Facebook © Getty Images
Facebook can be dangerous for younger users, and Meta is relentlessly trying to fix the problem. The National Center of Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), an organization collecting reports of online child abuse, collected more than 29.3 million reports in 2021. Facebook represents the overwhelming majority there with 22.1 million reports, against “only” 500,000 for Snapchat or 150,000 on TikTok. Meta immediately announced, via a press release, the implementation of new security features.
Facilitate account reporting
Facebook first highlights tools for reporting suspicious accounts. From now on, each minor blocking an account will see a window pop up allowing the reporting of this account, thus warning that this approach is not trivial. Added to this is a simplification of this reporting system. According to Meta, these changes are already effective as reports sent by minors in the first quarter of 2022 increased by 70% compared to the previous one.
Each account blocking will be accompanied by an incentive to report © Meta
In addition to inspiring young people to take action, Meta will automatically lock and secure their accounts. Since November 21, any minor wishing to register on the network benefits by default from the highest confidentiality settings. The platform will also encourage minors already registered to modify the parameters concerning access to their list of friends, access to their publications or even the authorization of comments under the publications. In concrete terms, the objective is to prevent interactions with strangers as much as possible.
Settings for minors will be as secure as possible © Meta
An upcoming platform against sextortion
Finally, Meta is going to put in place a whole policy to protect the private content of minors and to fight against the non-consented sharing of intimate content, known as “sextortion”. This practice consists, for cybercriminals, in blackmailing content (photo, video) of a sexual nature recovered from the victim. Meta is partnering with NCMEC to develop a platform to help teens fearful of having their intimate private content disseminated on the internet. A platform which should be similar to the one put in place last year to prevent the revenge pornalthough the project is still embryonic.
Nevertheless, the association with the NCMEC will allow Meta to surround itself with experts, parents and lawyers of victims concerning these questions in order to take the necessary measures to treat these cases of sextortion. Facebook has also partnered with Thorn to create an information and awareness site on this serious problem. Meta, however, did not communicate on the moderation of reported and potentially dangerous accounts.
A few months ago, Facebook already offered new features to users, such as preventing adults from sending messages to teenagers they are not connected to or seeing teenagers in “People You May Know” recommendations.