Meta expands teen safety controls to Instagram, Facebook, Messenger
Meta is globally expanding new content safety settings for Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. This initiative builds on a pilot program launched last year in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, which established a default 13+ content filter inspired by movie rating standards and direct parent feedback. Since the initial rollout, nine out of ten teenagers have remained within this default setting. The expanded 13+ default setting is now live worldwide. On Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, these settings are designed to hide age-inappropriate content from feeds and reels. Additionally, they limit teenagers' ability to interact with profiles, pages, groups, and events that primarily host unsuitable material. Messenger-specific updates include restrictions on viewing links to inappropriate Facebook content and chatting with accounts that share such material. A stricter option, the Limited Content setting, will be made available on Facebook and Messenger later this year. To ensure these systems remain effective, Meta has continued to engage parents globally in rating content. Over the past year, hundreds of thousands of parents have evaluated more than 15 million pieces of content. Recent data from a survey conducted in April involving parents in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada shows that fewer than 2% of posts recommended to teens were considered inappropriate by the majority of reviewers. In a separate initiative, Meta is testing new methods to prevent teens from being repeatedly exposed to specific types of content, even if that content is generally age-appropriate. Topics such as nutrition, weightlifting, or anxiety coping mechanisms can be beneficial but should be balanced rather than dominating a user's experience. New algorithms will limit the frequency of such posts appearing in the Explore, Feed, and Reels sections. To rigorously validate these safety measures, Meta commissioned Alice, formerly known as ActiveFence, to conduct an independent external assessment. Alice, a team of online safety experts, performed adversarial stress-testing to evaluate the Teen Account settings against mature themes found in movies rated 13+ and on a leading competitor platform. The analysis confirmed that Meta's systems largely align with the intended safety guidelines. The external assessment identified two minor areas for improvement, which Meta has already addressed. The company emphasized that while their guidelines were inspired by the Motion Picture Association, there is no formal endorsement or partnership with the MPA. Social media moderation operates differently than a movie ratings board, and the experience may not be identical, but the goal remains to provide a safe environment for young users. Meta plans to continue these rigorous stress tests to further refine their systems and ensure positive experiences for teenagers across their platforms.
