Instagram now prevents adults from sending messages to people under 18 who don’t follow them, and is urging teens to be more cautious about interactions in DMs
- Adults won’t e able to message teens who don’t already follow them on the app
- Instagram is also making it more difficult for adults to find and follow teenagers
- It’s working to make sure teens don’t lie about their age to set up an account
- Its terms of service require all users to be at least 13 years old to have an account
Instagram is to restrict the ability of adults to contact teenagers who do not follow them on the platform as part of new safety tools aimed at protecting younger users.
Under the new rules, adults will be blocked from sending a direct message (DM) to any Instagram user under 18 if that account does not already follow them.
It will also begin sending safety alerts to users aged under 18 to encourage them to be cautious in conversation with adults they are already connected to but have exhibited potentially suspicious behaviour.
This could be sending a large amount of friend or message requests to teenage users, for example.
Instagram revealed new features and resources as part of ‘ongoing efforts to keep our youngest community members safe’
In addition, Instagram is making it more difficult for adults to find and follow teenagers on the app.
It’s restricting teen accounts from appearing in the Suggested Users section of the app and hiding content from teen users in both Reels and Explore.
Young users are also being encouraged to make their accounts private.
Instagram is currently developing new artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to help it better identify the real age of younger users, it also revealed.
The Facebook-owned photo sharing app acknowledged that some young people were lying about how old they were in order to access the platform.
Its terms of service require all users to be at least 13 years old to have an account.
‘Protecting young people on Instagram is important to us,’ the social media giant said in a blog post on Tuesday.
‘Today, we’re sharing updates on new features and resources as part of our ongoing efforts keep our youngest community members safe.
‘We believe that everyone should have a safe and supportive experience on Instagram.
‘These updates are a part of our ongoing efforts to protect young people, and our specialist teams will continue to invest in new interventions that further limit inappropriate interactions between adults and teens.’
The online safety of teenagers using social media has been a key issue for technology firms for some time.
Companies are under continued scrutiny in the wake of repeated warnings from industry experts and campaigners over the dangers for young people online.
The government is set to introduce an Online Safety Bill later this year, which is expected to introduce stricter regulation around protecting young people online and harsh punishments for platforms found to be failing to meet a duty of care, overseen by the regulator Ofcom.