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- Meta has introduced new safety updates for teenage users on Instagram and Facebook, restricting age-inappropriate content.
- The new content policies will also protect teens from sensitive content such as self-harm, suicide and eating disorders.
- This will be done through features including hiding age-inappropriate content, removing violating content, and implementing Sensitive Content Control settings.
- For more lifestyle news, go to the News24 Life front page.
To enhance the safety and well-being of its teenage users, Meta has introduced various safety updates to ensure age-appropriate experiences on Instagram and Facebook.
To achieve this, Meta has developed new content policies that will ensure youngsters are not exposed to sensitive content like suicide, self-harm and eating disorders on both platforms. This includes feeds, explore pages and stories.
"Meta is evolving its policies around content that could be more sensitive for teens, which is an important step in making social media platforms spaces where teens can connect and be creative in age-appropriate ways.
"These policies reflect current understandings and expert guidance regarding teens' safety and well-being.
"As these changes unfold, they provide good opportunities for parents to talk with their teens about how to navigate difficult topics," said Dr Rachel Rodgers, who is an associate professor in the department of applied psychology at Northeastern University.
Meta's partnership with organisations like the National Alliance on Mental Illness will benefit teens who post about their struggles with self-harm and eating disorders.
According to the company, these changes were being rolled out to users under 18 and were expected to be fully implemented on Instagram and Facebook in the next few months.
- Hide age-inappropriate content: They'll start to restrict teens from seeing certain types of content across Facebook and Instagram even if it is from friends or people they follow.
- Remove violating content: Meta will work to remove content that goes against their community guidelines across Instagram.
- Limit content restrictions: They refrain from recommending content that goes against their Recommendation Guidelines in places like IG Reels, Search, and Explore or suggested posts in Facebook Feed.
- Sensitive content control: Meta will also be taking steps to automatically place teens in the most restrictive content control settings on both Instagram and Facebook, known as "Sensitive Content Control" (on IG) and "Reduce" on (Facebook).
These features make it difficult for teens to come across potentially sensitive content or accounts, especially on Search and Explore pages.
The latest updates will ensure when teens search for words related to suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders, the platform will hide the results and lead the user to expert resources for help.
"We already hide results for suicide and self-harm search terms that inherently break our rules and we're extending this protection to include more terms.
"This update will roll out for everyone over the coming weeks," according to Meta.
READ | Meta launches new online features to help SA parents and teens manage time spent on social media
In addition to ensuring teens regularly check their safety and privacy settings on Instagram, new notifications will be sent to encourage them to update their settings to a more private experience with a single tap.
"If teens choose to 'Turn on recommended settings', we will automatically change their settings to restrict who can repost their content, tag or mention them, or include their content in Reels Remixes," the company said.
"We'll also ensure only their followers can message them and help hide offensive comments."
