Meta unveils new safety features to protect teens, Minors on Instagram, Facebook

WEB DESK: Meta has introduced a range of new tools and updates designed to enhance safety for teenagers and children across its platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. These enhancements include refined direct messaging options for young users, expanded protections against nudity, and stronger safeguards for accounts managed by adults that mainly feature minors, according to an official statement. Teen accounts will now provide more context about who they are messaging, such as safety tips, account creation date, and a new quick option to block and report message senders. In June alone, teens utilized Meta’s safety notices to block over 1 million accounts and reported another million after viewing safety alerts. To combat cross-border sextortion scams, Meta is rolling out a “Location Notice” feature on Instagram. This alert informs users when they are chatting with someone in another country, a tactic often exploited to target young people. Over 10% of users clicked on the notice to learn more about protective measures. Meta’s nudity protection feature, which automatically blurs suspected explicit images in direct messages, remains widely used—99% of users, including teens, kept this setting active as of June. This feature has also contributed to a 45% reduction in forwarding explicit content
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