Instagram Enhances Safety for Accounts With Children Content

Meta Enhances Safety Features for Teen Users on Instagram

Meta, the parent company of Instagram, is rolling out additional safety features aimed at protecting teen users from potential harm on its platform. These new measures include enhanced safeguards in direct messaging to prevent what the company refers to as "direct and indirect harm." The updates are part of a broader initiative to improve online safety for younger users.

The new features build upon existing protections for "teen accounts" and include more prominent displays of user information during direct messages, new options to view safety tips, and quicker ways to block an account. Additionally, these protections will now extend to adult-run accounts that primarily feature children.

This announcement comes after months of pressure from activists, lawmakers, and health officials urging social media companies to do more to protect younger users from mental health issues and sexual exploitation.

New Features for Teen Accounts

Teen users will now see the month and year an account joined when chatting with them directly. They will also have easier access to block and report other users while engaging in direct messaging. These changes aim to complement the Safety Notices that remind users to be cautious in private messages and to block or report anything that makes them uncomfortable.

According to Meta’s statement, teens have been actively using these tools. In June alone, they blocked accounts 1 million times and reported another 1 million after seeing a Safety Notice.

Introduction of Teen Accounts

Meta introduced teen accounts in September 2024 in response to growing concerns about the impact of social media on children and teens' mental health and safety. The company faced criticism for not doing enough to protect minors on its platforms.

Teen accounts are automatically assigned to any new users under the age of 18. These accounts limit what users can see, who can message and interact with them, and allow parents to exercise more control over their teens' social media use.

Safety Features on Teen Accounts

Safety features on teen accounts include:

• Messaging Restrictions: Teen accounts can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to via mutual friends.
• Anti-Bullying Settings: The platform's tightest anti-bullying settings are applied, filtering out offensive words and phrases from comments and direct-message requests.
• Content Filters: A filter for content classified as "sensitive" is in place, including anything marked as potentially sensitive, such as sexually suggestive content, content discussing suicide, self-harm, or disordered eating, and images of violence.
• Usage Limits: Teens receive notifications telling them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day, and a sleep mode turns on to mute notifications overnight and send auto-replies to direct messages.

In April, Meta announced a protection feature in Instagram direct messages for teens under 18. This feature automatically blurs nude images, gives senders the option to unsend the images, and provides warning notices to both senders and recipients. Since its introduction, 99% of users have kept the nudity blur turned on, and in June, over 40% of blurred images received in direct messages stayed blurred.

Safety Measures for Adult-Run Accounts Featuring Children

Adult-run accounts that feature or represent children must disclose in the account bio that they manage the account. These accounts include family-influencer accounts and those run by parents or talent managers representing minors.

While these accounts are predominantly used in benign ways, there have been instances where individuals have tried to abuse them, leaving sexualized comments or requesting sexual images in direct messages. To address this, Meta is implementing several safety features for these accounts.

Key changes include:

• Strict Message Settings: Adult-run accounts will default to the platforms' "strictest message settings" to prevent unwanted messages, including filters for offensive words and comments.
• Search Protections: Meta will implement protections to make it harder for "potentially suspicious adults," such as those who have been blocked by teen users, to find these adult-run accounts via search.
• Account Removals: Earlier this year, Meta removed 135,000 Instagram accounts for leaving sexualized comments or requesting sexual images from adult-managed accounts featuring children under 13. An additional 500,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to those accounts were also removed.

Ongoing Criticism and Legal Challenges

Meta, along with other social media platforms, has faced years of criticism and numerous lawsuits over the addictive nature of social media and its impact on minors. In 2023, more than 40 U.S. states sued Meta for misleading the public about the dangers of its platforms. In July 2024, the U.S. Senate advanced two online safety bills that would force social media companies to take responsibility for how their platforms affect children and teens.