Meta updates safety features for teens

Meta introduced new safety features aimed at teen users, including enhanced direct messaging protections. Meta said it removed more than 600,000 accounts that were linked to predatory behavior on Instagram and Facebook. 135,000 of those accounts were found to be leaving sexualized comments or requesting sexual images from adult-managed accounts featuring children. “In June alone, they blocked accounts 1 million times and reported another 1 million after seeing a Safety Notice,” the company said. “In addition to these new protections, we’re also continuing to take aggressive action on accounts that break our rules. Earlier this year, our specialist teams removed nearly 135,000 Instagram accounts for leaving sexualized comments or requesting sexual images from adult-managed accounts featuring children under 13. We also removed an additional 500,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts that were linked to those original accounts. We let people know that we’d removed an account that had interacted inappropriately with their content, encouraging them to be cautious and to block and report. People who seek to exploit children don’t limit themselves to any one platform, which is why we also shared information about these accounts with other tech companies through the Tech Coalition’s Lantern program.”