Instagram makes it harder for teens to see sensitive content

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Meta is taking necessary steps to make its platforms age-appropriate for teenagers. After consulting experts in the field, the company has decided to make a few changes to its Instagram and Facebook platforms. 

According to Meta, Instagram, and Facebook will now place teenagers on the most restrictive content control settings automatically. 

Instagram will hide age-inappropriate content even if shared by someone you follow

Meta wrote in a blog post, “We already apply this setting for new teens when they join Instagram and Facebook and are now expanding it to teens who are already using these apps.”

Meta gives the example of someone posting about their thoughts of self-harm. 

From that person’s perspective, it will be an important story, but the platform will hide it from its teenage users as the topic is complex in nature and may not be suitable for young people. 

In addition, the platform will block terms like “suicide,” “self-harm,” and “eating disorders” in search of teenagers.

The platform will hide the search results and redirect the teenagers to resourceful places for help.

Different types of age-inappropriate content exist, and all of them will be removed from the Feeds and Stories of teenage users – even if it is shared by someone they follow. 

Meta says it has already removed such content from Reels and Explore feeds available to teens.

These new changes have only started to roll out to all Instagram and Facebook users under 18 and will be fully implemented in the coming months. 

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