Meta tightens messaging rules for teens on Instagram and Facebook

Teens who have a supervised account will need their parents’ permission to turn the setting off.

The new settings will apply to all users under the age of 16 (or 18 in some regions). Users who fall under this category will see a notification at the top of their Feed letting them know that the setting has been changed.

The same settings will also apply to teenagers using Messenger wherein they will only be able to receive messages from Facebook friends, or people on their phone contacts.

Additionally, Meta said that it also plans to launch a new feature, which will protect teens from “seeing unwanted and potentially inappropriate images in their messages” from people they already know and are connected to. It will also discourage them from sending these types of images themselves, most likely through a pop-up alert.

The company will share more on this feature later this year.

Meta is also bringing updates to the parental supervision programme launched in 2022. Now, parents will be prompted to approve or deny requests when a teen changes their default safety and privacy settings to a less strict state, instead of just being notified.

“As with all our parental supervision tools, this new feature is intended to help facilitate offline conversations between parents and their teens, as they navigate their online lives together and decide what’s best for them and their family,” the tech giant said.

The updates come in response to the allegations from the United States and the European Commission that the company is not doing enough to protect children on its platforms.

Last week, unredacted documents from New Mexico's lawsuit against Meta highlighted the company's “historical reluctance” to keep children safe on its platforms.

According to the documents, Meta was aware of issues such as adult strangers being able to contact children on Instagram, the sexualisation of minors on that platform, and the dangers of its “people you may know” feature that recommends connections between adults and children.

Meta said it uses sophisticated technology, hires child safety experts, reports content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and shares information and tools with other companies and law enforcement, including state attorneys general, to help root out predators.

The California-based company has been updating its safeguards and tools for younger users as lawmakers pressure it on child safety.