Facebook And Instagram, Will Not Allow Teens To Receive Messages From Adults. Here’s Why

To protect young people from cyberbullying, Meta is implementing new privacy settings on Facebook and Instagram. When an adult is not already connected to an adolescent on a given platform, they will no longer be able to send them a message.

Users’ worries about cyberbullying have increased in recent years. And social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are particularly open to cyberbullying among adolescents. Facebook is blamed for over 87% of all instances of cyberbullying. Therefore, Meta has added new privacy options for Instagram and Facebook in an effort to protect teens from online harm on its social media platform. 

The new privacy features, as described by Meta, will keep children secure and give them access to Instagram and Facebook that is suitable for their age group. When a user signs up for Facebook or Instagram now, the account’s privacy settings will be adjusted to accommodate a younger audience (16 and under in some countries). 

Here is a rundown of Facebook’s new privacy settings that will be enabled automatically for young users.

• 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
• Reviewing posts, they’re tagged in before the post appears on their profile
• Who is allowed to comment on their public posts

“We’re now testing ways to protect teens from messaging suspicious adults they aren’t connected to, and we won’t show them in teens’ People You May Know recommendations,” announced Meta in their posts.

Meta is also experimenting with a new feature that will disable the ‘Message’ button for users under the age of 18. It will make it even more difficult for strangers to contact minors via messaging services when they’re not already on their friends’ lists. 

The Mark Zuckerberg-led corporation is also collaborating with the NCMEC to create a global platform for youth people who are concerned that their private thoughts may be exposed on public online platforms all without their knowledge or permission. Meta is also working with Thorn & their NoFiltr brand to help young people overcome the stigma and embarrassment associated with sharing sexually explicit photos online. 

Meanwhile, Facebook has a page dedicated to reporting suspicious activity, so users can alert Facebook to accounts they believe to be fake.

• Open Facebook
• Go to the Page or Profile you want to report.
• Click on three dots below the Page’s cover photo.
• Now select Find Support or Report Page.
• Tell how ‘Page goes against our ( Facebook) Community Standards.
• And report the page.
• Similarly, to report a message on Instagram:
• Open the conversation in the Instagram app.
• Tap the individual message you’d like to report.
• Tap next to the message.
• Tap Report.

Like that, you may report the accounts by going on the account page > tap on the three dots on the top right corner of the page> Tap on report