Facebook and Instagram outline measures to make teen profiles private by default

American multinational technology conglomerate, Meta has announced that it is introducing updates that are aimed at protecting those under the age of 16 or 18 in some countries from online distress.

On Monday 21 November, Meta said it is also working out a plan protecting teenagers from interacting with potentially dubious adults. Meta said teen accounts on Facebook and Instagram platforms will be made private by default.

"Starting now, everyone who is under the age of 16 (or under 18 in certain countries) will default to more private settings when they join Facebook. For example, we restrict adults from messaging teens they aren’t connected to or from seeing them in their People You May Know recommendations,” Meta said in a blog post.

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For the teens who are already on the app, they will be subjected to choose more private settings for who can see their friends list, who can see the people, Pages, and lists they follow, who can see posts they’re tagged in on their profile, previewing posts they’re tagged in before the post appears on their profile as well as who is allowed to comment on their public posts.

Meta also said it is working on measures to bring to a stop the spread of teens’ intimate images online, especially if the images are being used to extort them. Sharing intimate photos of individuals without their consensus is known to have a traumatic experience.

"We’re working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to build a global platform for teens who are worried intimate images they created might be shared on public online platforms without their consent," Meta posted.

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In order to design the platform and make sure it meets the needs of kids so they may reclaim control of their material in these heinous situations, Meta has been working closely with NCMEC, professionals, academics, parents, and victim advocates throughout the world.