Meta is moving its “teen accounts” to Facebook and Messenger. As with Instagram, the company will start automatically moving younger teens to new accounts that have mandatory parental controls and restrictions on who they can message and interact with.
The company first introduced the feature on Instagram last fall, and now 54 million teens have more closed accounts. (Instagram requires teens between the ages of 13 and 15 to use a teen account and has built-in tools designed to identify those who lie about their age.) Similarly, teen accounts on Facebook and Messenger will work in a similar way. Teenagers will not be able to interact with unknown contacts or change certain privacy settings without parental permission. Parents will also be able to monitor their child’s screen time and friend list.
Meta is also adding new security features for teens’ Instagram accounts. With the changes, teens under the age of 16 will need parental permission to start live streaming. The app also won’t allow younger teens to turn off nudity protection – a feature that automatically blurs images in live messages containing “suspected nudity” – unless they get parental permission.
These may seem like obvious safeguards (and they are), but they at least show that Meta is closing obvious gaps in its teen-oriented safety features. In recent years, the company has come under scrutiny for the impact of its apps, particularly Instagram, on teens. Dozens of states are currently suing Meta over alleged harm to young users.
