Meta adds new age -based Facebook restrictions, Messenger to curb inappropriate content

Parents will “like” this.

Meta has added “teenage accounts” on Facebook and Messenger to limit who can contact minors and control the content they are exposed to.

On Tuesday, the technology giant announced that users under 18 will automatically register on these accounts in an effort “to give parents more mental peace in meta applications” and will curb exposure to inappropriate content.

Meta told Techcrunch that teens would only receive messages from people who follow or have previously sent them. Only their friends will be able to see and respond to stories and labels, mention and comments will be limited to them on their network.

Teens will also be sent notifications to close applications after one hour on the screen and place their applications in “Mode Quiet” at night.

Users under 16 need a parent’s permission to change settings to be less strict.

These defenses will be rolled in the US, UK, Australia and Canada before expanding elsewhere.

Similar security features were added to Instagram last year after guards and lawmakers continued to crack down on the lack of protection of social media companies against children, amid concern for increasing mental health issues.

Along with the recently added features on Facebook and Messenger, Instagram allows parents to see what accounts their child has recent messages, set daily time and block adolescents from the use of the application over specific periods.

In the latest update on Tuesday, Meta also added protection by blocking adolescents under 16 from going “live”, taking “unwanted images” and unclear images suspected of containing nakedness, all without the parent’s permission.

Meta claims that 97% of adolescents aged 13 to 15 have kept these integrated restrictions on their accounts since they were first added last year and that 94% of parents say these restrictions are “useful”.

However, since the beginning of these changes, many security groups and parents online have insisted that security improvements are inappropriate.

Last summer, US surgeon general Vivek Murty called for the implementation of a “warning label” of tobacco style for social media applications to raise awareness of their potential mental health risks, including depression and anxiety.

Last fall, a coalition of general state lawyers sued Meta, claiming that the company was based on addictive features to connect children and increase profits at the expense of their mental health.

“Meta can promote as many” child “or” adolescent-focused “traits as he wishes, it will not change the fact that his main business model is projected to benefit and encourage children and adolescents to become dependent on his products-and American parents are wise for hurry and require legislative actions,” said Tech Supight Project Director Sacha Haworth said.

Another supervisor, the transparency project of the technique, argued that Meta “has claimed for years to apply” versions of detailed traits in the initial movement.

For example, Meta initially announced plans to make private teens accounts as default and limit their interactions with foreigners by 2021, according to previous blog posts.