Meta has just taken new measures to better protect minors on its services. From now on, those under 16 will no longer be able to receive messages from strangers on Instagram and Messenger.
If, in fact, social networks are prohibited for those under 13, nothing prevents young Internet users from creating accounts. Indeed, many minors, and sometimes even adolescents under 13, are already very active on major digital platforms, such as TikTok, Facebook or even Instagram. Unfortunately, this trend can be dangerous. Between shocking content – which is not always filtered – and malicious people, young users are far from safe. Because, yes, many predators use social networks to get closer to minors. To remedy this, Meta had deployed several measures. Since 2021, for example, minor users could no longer receive messages from Internet users who do not follow them. However, you had to activate this function in the application settings to take advantage of it.
Meta: Minor users can no longer be contacted by strangers
In a communicated published on January 25, 2024 on its blog, Meta has indeed announced the upcoming arrival of “more than thirty tools and features” allowing to “guarantee protection” adolescents and parents. “One of the main features turns out to be the impossibility of contacting a minor if they do not follow us”, indicates the Menlo Park firm. More concretely, the function that could be activated in the application settings will now be installed by default. Thus, minors with an account on Instagram or Messenger will no longer be able to be contacted by other users who are not in their contacts, regardless of their age. A function that will help keep away predators or harassers who pose as adolescents on these platforms. The only difference between the two platforms is that Messenger users can be approached by people appearing in their telephone contacts, which is not the case for Instagram.
In addition to this addition, Meta has also planned other measures to facilitate parental supervision. Soon, parents will be able to approve certain changes to the security and confidentiality settings for the accounts of users under 16 years old. For example, a teenager will no longer be able to make their private account public without the validation of a parent.