Meta's Making Instagram and Facebook Safer for Kids

Meta’s stepping up its game to keep kids safe on Instagram and Facebook Messenger. They’re rolling out some new changes aimed at stopping unwanted messages from reaching young users. It’s all about making sure that teens can enjoy social media without the worry of running into strangers in their DMs.

Now, if you’re under 16 (or under 18 in some places), you won’t get messages or group chat invites from people you don’t follow. This is a big deal because, before, the rules were a bit looser, mainly focusing on adults trying to message younger users. But Meta’s decided that everyone, no matter their age, should have this protection.

When you hop onto Instagram, you’ll see a heads-up about this at the top of your feed. And if you’re a teen with a supervised account, changing this setting will need a thumbs-up from your parents. It’s all about keeping you in the loop and making sure you’re cool with who can reach out to you.

Parents, listen up! You’re getting more control, too. Instead of just getting notified when your kid changes their privacy or safety settings, you’ll now have the power to say yes or no to these changes. So, if they want to switch their profile from private to public, you’ll have a say in it.

And there’s more on the horizon. Meta’s working on a feature to stop unwanted or inappropriate pictures from popping up in messages. They’re still figuring out the details, but they promise it’ll even work in private chats. We should hear more about this later on.

So, what’s the takeaway? Meta’s really putting in the effort to make Instagram and Facebook places where kids can hang out safely. With these new rules and tools, they’re hoping to make the online world a bit friendlier for the younger crowd.