Meta Announces Measures to Strengthen Safety Use by Youth Users
The social network service (SNS) Instagram is changing the accounts of teenagers to private. Teenager accounts will only be able to receive private messages from those they follow or are already connected to. It is expected to be introduced in Korea starting next year.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, announced on the 17th (local time) a plan to strengthen safety for young users that includes such measures. It is a concrete measure that has been prepared amid criticism that the functions of Instagram and Facebook are designed to easily cause addiction among young people and have a negative impact.
Instagram announced that starting today, it will consider accounts of minors under the age of 18 who sign up for Instagram in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia as ‘teen accounts’. The algorithm for teen accounts does not recommend sexual content or content related to suicide and self-harm. Also, if you log in to Instagram for more than 60 minutes, a notification will appear telling you to close the app. ‘Sleep mode’ will be activated between 10 PM and 7 AM, which stops notifications.
Existing youth accounts will be converted to teen accounts within the next 60 days. Youth accounts in the European Union (EU) will be adjusted later this year. From January next year, the application will be expanded to other countries.
Parental control is also strengthened. Parents can limit the time they spend on Instagram by activating ‘Supervisory Mode’. There is also a protection feature that allows you to check who your child is messaging. Users under the age of 16 can only change these default settings with parental permission.
Meta explained that it can track teenagers if they lie about their age or try to create adult accounts using other devices. It added that it is also developing technology to predict whether someone who has listed their age as an adult is likely to be a teenager.
Last October, 33 state governments, including the US state of California, filed a lawsuit against Meta, claiming that Facebook and Instagram were damaging the mental health of teenagers due to their excessive addictiveness. The European Union (EU) also launched an official investigation into Facebook and Instagram, claiming that they could cause addiction in minors.
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said of the move, “We expect to see a significant decline in our teenage user base,” but added, “It will hurt in the short term, but building trust and reassuring parents will help our business in the long run.”
Reporter Han Jong-ho [email protected]
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2024-09-19 00:29:22