Meta launches teen accounts on Facebook to deepen child protection

Meta has launched special Teen Accounts for users of Facebook and Messenger worldwide. The feature, which was initially launched on Instagram last year, is aimed at making the experience more secure for younger people. It integrates closer privacy controls, parental limits, and age verification with artificial intelligence.

With this change, teenagers everywhere will be defaulted into a more limited environment when they are on Meta’s platforms. The accounts limit who can message them, see their stories, or tag/mention them. The hope is to reduce exposure to unwanted material and unwanted contact.

The global rollout is an expansion of earlier availability in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. Meta says that this step proves its commitment to teen safety on all its platforms. This comes as regulators, health experts, and campaign groups are pressing social media companies to act more to protect young people online.

Teen Accounts were introduced soon after a series of hearings in the United States, where lawmakers accused big sites of not doing enough to keep children safe. Meta has since come under pressure to improve its mechanisms for protecting teens while keeping them on their network.

New privacy and parental controls on Teen Accounts

Under Teen Accounts, messaging is restricted. Teens are only able to receive messages from a person they follow or who they have initiated contact with previously. This reduces the risk of receiving unsolicited or random messages from strangers. Only friends can view and comment on their posts.

Tags, mentions, and comments are only for individuals that they follow or that they already have as friends. Meta has also added time management features. Teens will be prompted to log out after an hour of usage and automatically be put into Quiet Mode at night. Quiet Mode mutes notifications and limits activity, so teens can focus on sleep and offline activities.

Parental engagement is also stronger. Under-16s must have parental consent to make changes to safety settings. Parents can see screen time, put limits in place, and control who can get in touch with their teens.

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Meta says this development creates one consistent standard on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. This was imperative as parents used to have to deal with different safety settings across each of the apps, which was confusing.

Managing concerns about teen safety

The rollout comes as Meta continues to be criticised for poor teen safety measures on platforms. Investigations by child safety groups and whistleblowers have shown that despite protective measures, violent material sometimes winds up in children’s hands. Thus, minors have been exposed to self-injury material, sexualized uploads, and other high-risk material.

Meta pushed back on some of these findings, arguing that its technology has significantly reduced the amount of toxic content teens see. The company claims Teen Accounts helps to screen out the worst of it and gives parents a better way to stay involved.

In addition to Teen Accounts, Meta also announced it was rolling out its School Partnership Program. The program allows schools to report bullying and other issues directly to Instagram so they can be dealt with more efficiently.

Middle and high schools across the U.S. can sign up to get access to the tool and digital safety education resources. The accounts of participating schools will also have banners that will make parents and students aware that they are participating schools.

Meta says the program had a positive response from schools during early testing. Expanding it is just part of a larger strategy to get teachers involved in safeguarding teens online.

The global rollout of teen accounts is Meta’s response to mounting pressure for more control of young people’s use of social media. By rolling out Teen Accounts worldwide, Meta is trying to demonstrate that it is committed to the problem and willing to mainstream safeguards for its youngest users.