Meta introduced stricter messaging settings for teens on Instagram and Facebook

Teenagers are a curious and, at the same time, a vulnerable segment of society. They want to gain experience; sometimes, they need to do it correctly, like social networks. As parents, we are responsible for controlling our teenagers. This control should be more and more effective while using social networks. Instagram and Facebook are the most used social networks recently and are also popular among teenagers. For this reason, Meta has stood by parents to make it easier for them to monitor and take care of their teenagers by applying stricter settings to the accounts of teenagers active on Facebook and Instagram. In this article, we will introduce these settings and how they work.

Stricter settings for sending direct messages to teenagers

Meta Company is trying to create a safe social networking experience for teenagers. In this regard, it has applied settings on the direct account of teenagers.

For example, adults over 19 are not allowed to send direct messages to teenagers and can only do so within the limit of one text message. But now, these restrictions have become stricter and have gone further to protect teenagers.

As of today, settings have been applied to teenagers' accounts that, by default, people who do not follow them or have not communicated with each other on Instagram cannot send direct messages to the teenager's account, even if they are teenagers themselves. This is for extra protection against strangers.

With these new settings, only people who follow or connect with a teen can direct or add them to chats. These settings apply by default to accounts of people under 16 (or under 18 in some countries).

Before applying these settings, Instagram will send a notification so that parents and teenagers who own the account know about it. All these settings are also used in Facebook Messenger.

Known people can harm a teenager. That's why Meta plans to implement settings that protect teens from accidentally seeing inappropriate or potentially inappropriate images in messages from people they know. By the end of 2024, the company will have fully introduced these and other newer features.

Helping parents shape their teens' online experiences

For the first time in March 2022, a parental control system was launched for teenagers' Instagram accounts. Since then, Meta has added new and better features to help with parental control.

These include the parent's ability to set time limits and schedule breaks for the teen. Parents will know even if their child tries to change settings or block someone
Teens under 16 may want to change their account, including changing it from private to public or receiving direct messages from people they don't follow.

Teenagers can change the content control from high sensitivity to standard mode. But before any changes are made, parents will receive a notification, and requests will be sent directly to them. In this case, parents can accept or reject it.

Conclusion

Teenagers are now among the active segments of society. They are trying to adapt to the online world but must be made aware that they may face problems. However, these issues and concerns can be corrected with monitoring and a little strictness on the content that teenagers share and view. As the owner of social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, Meta Company has started to work and apply settings to give teenagers a positive and better experience using these platforms. This article discussed these things, including the restrictions applied and their reasons and methods. We hope this article was helpful to you.