Meta recently announced in a blog post that it will be soon changing default privacy settings for children who join Facebook and Instagram. Last year, Meta had started restricting adults from messaging teens with whom they are not connected.
Now, Meta is also removing the message button on Instagram accounts that belong to those under 18 when viewed by ‘suspicious’ adults. Accounts are tagged as suspicious when a young person blocks or reports an adult.
The company also said that those under 16 (under 18 in some countries) will automatically have more private settings when they join Facebook or Instagram. It will also encourage minors on the platform to make their profile more private by changing settings for who can see their friends list, people, pages, restricting who can see posts they are tagged in and review posts they are tagged in before it appears on their profile.
Meta will encourage those under 16 or under 18 to update their privacy settings. (Image Source: Facebook)
It looks like Facebook and Instagram users under 16 or 18 whose profiles are not private enough will receive a notification from the app asking them to update their privacy settings to ‘suggested’ with a single click.
In a manner similar to how the platform prevents non-consensual sharing of intimate images for adults, the company will now encourage users to not share such images and report to them so they can be removed.
