Social media giant Meta announced new restrictions aimed at protecting its underage users.
The changes make it impossible for adult Instagram users to message underage users who don’t follow them. All users under the age of 16 will have the restriction turned on by default.
Similar restrictions are coming soon to Facebook Messenger as well. Users will be able to receive messages from only their Facebook friends or people in their phone contacts. According to Meta, users will be notified of the update with a push notification.
Parents are also getting more control as part of the new update. Parents will now be notified if their child tries to update their settings and can stop that move. For example, if an underage user tries to change a private account to public, a parent or guardian would receive a notification and an option to block the setting change.
Meta said it hopes the update will discourage teens from seeing or sending inappropriate messages through their apps. This week’s update is a further addition to youth-centric restrictions launched on Meta’s platforms in 2022.
The new restrictions follow Meta’s update last month that stopped underage users from looking at self-harm and eating disorder content.
The update comes a few days before Meta is expected to testify Wednesday with other social media sites before Congress over its child safety policies.
The updates are part of Meta’s goal of improving the experience for younger users and to help assure parents that its platforms are safe. Late last year, Meta was slapped with a massive lawsuit from over 40 states accusing the company of marketing apps that are dangerous for the mental health of children.