Meta Adds New Teen Safety Features After Receiving Criticism

On Tuesday, Meta announced it is broadening its safety for youths by rolling out new features for teen Facebook and Instagram users. These include content restrictions and hiding search results associated with self-harm and suicide terms, reports CNN.

The multinational technology conglomerate said the new policies will add to 30 already-existing well-being and parental oversight settings aimed at safeguarding young users and giving parents visibility into their children’s social media habits.

The announcement of this new feature has come into place following criticism that Meta has faced in the last few months over its potential negative effects on young users.

Former Facebook employee Arturo Bejar gave inside information in November when he told a Senate subcommittee in a hearing that high-level executives Meta, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, turned a blind eye to warnings for many years about harm to teens on its platforms. Bejar highlighted specific unease about the sexual harassment of teens by strangers on Instagram.

Simultaneously, unsealed court documents in one lawsuit against the company brought internal company records to light, which indicate that Zuckerberg consistently prevented initiatives aimed at promoting the well-being of teens. Court documents uncovered in another lawsuit a few weeks after claimed that Meta knowingly declined to close down most accounts that belonged to children under 13 years old, meanwhile collecting their personal information without consent from their parents.

In December, another lawsuit was filed in New Mexico against the company, alleging that it was creating a “breeding ground” for child predators.

Meta announced its new policies in a blog post, saying it wants “teens to have safe, age-appropriate experiences on our apps.” Meta has said that it will begin to start hiding “age-inappropriate content” such as posts that talk about self-harm and eating disorders, nudity, or restricted goods from the feeds of teens and stories, which also applies to posts that may have been shared by someone they follow.

The new changes will be released over the next few months and are aimed specifically at children under the age of 18.