Meta Expands Youth Safety Efforts

Meta announced this week that it would be expanding efforts made in regard to youth safety. The company will be releasing new settings for teen Instagram and Facebook users. 

Meta has recently faced criticism over its potential impact on teenage users including claims that the company’s top executives were ignoring warnings about the negative impact of its platforms on teens. 

Also, CNN reported that one of the many lawsuits against Meta alleged the company “knowingly refused to shut down most accounts belonging to children under the age of 13, while collecting their personal information without their parents’ consent.” 

Meta is now addressing the risks for teen users by implementing new policies with the goal of creating a safe, age-appropriate experience for teens on its apps, the company announced in a blog post. Content deemed “age-innapropriate” such as posts discussing self-harm, eating disorders and nudity will now be hidden from teens’ feeds and stories. 

Additionally, all Instagram and Facebook teen users will be placed into the platforms’ most restrictive content recommendation settings. This will make it more difficult for teens to access potentially sensitive content via search or explore.