Meta continues to steadily roll out updates for younger users in an attempt to bolster their safety and privacy. On Thursday, the tech company announced some of its most restrictive measures yet—in theory. Teens users, by default, will no longer receive direct messages on Instagram and Facebook from anyone that isn’t a follower or connection. “Connections,” according to Meta, are those people that users have “communicated with” in some way, such as sending text messages, voice or video calls, or accepting message requests. A similar update is also going into effect on Facebook, with messages only allowed from friends and “people they’re connected to through phone contacts, for example.”
Instagram previously restricted anyone over 18 years old from messaging younger accounts that did not already follow them back. The expanded rules will automatically apply to global users under the age of either 16 or 18, depending on their country’s laws, who now also cannot message other teens they are not connected to. Similarly, group chats with teens can only include their friends or connections, and the same messaging restrictions apply for teens who don’t follow each other.
[Related: Instagram will start telling teens to put down their phones and go to sleep.]
To disable the setting, teens will need to receive permission from their parents through the social media platforms’ parental supervision tools. Until now, parents and guardians would receive notifications if teens changed their settings, but couldn’t do anything about it. According to Meta, affected users will receive a notification on their apps regarding the new changes.
“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,” Meta wrote in today’s newsroom post.
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