The Meta group announced on Thursday that it was intensifying its efforts to protect adolescents who use its social networks. On Instagram and Facebook Messenger, messaging settings are becoming stricter than ever.
The parent company of the social networks Instagram and Facebook, Meta, introduced new messaging settings this Thursday, January 25, 2024 to strengthen the protection of adolescents under 18 in France. After launching more than thirty tools in 2021 in this direction, the American group is now tackling unwanted contacts. Let’s see what changes.
On Instagram, teens will only receive messages from people they follow
Users under 18 will no longer be able to receive direct messages (the famous DMs) from people they do not follow, by default. Until now, this applied to messages from adults. After choosing to advise teenagers to go to bed rather than scroll endlessly, Meta decided to tighten the screw, and that’s not all!
The change applies to all teenagers under 18 in France, whether they are new to the platform or already users of Instagram. Spam messages sent by minors will be treated the same as those sent by adults.
Existing users will be informed of the adjustment of their email settings via a notification, to reduce the risk of unwanted contacts. In other words, minors will only be able to receive messages or be added to groups by people they follow.
Meta also strengthens the safety of young people on Messenger (Facebook)
On Messenger, similar changes are made to teen settings. They will only receive messages from their Facebook friends or people with their telephone number, thereby reducing the risks.
Meta also thought about the parents’ outlook. Mark Zuckerberg’s firm is launching a new feature, parental supervision, a sort of superpower that allows adults to be asked to approve or refuse requests to change default security and privacy settings, from teenagers under 16 years old.
Parental approval is not limited to a simple notification, as it will require explicit action. If, for example, a teen tries to make their account public or change their email settings, parents will receive a notification to agree or decline. This is an initiative which, in addition to facilitating relations between parents and adolescents, will further protect the latter from the dangers of the Web.
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