Instagram, Facebook will not let adults send messages to teens, here's why

Cyberbulling has become a growing concern among users. And one of the most vulnerable online spaces for teen cyberbullying are Facebook and Instagram. Reportedly, around 87 per cent of cases of cyberbullying take place on Facebook. So, to make its social media platform safer, Meta has introduced new privacy features for Facebook and Instagram which will help teenagers from online harm.

Meta announced that the new privacy tools will protect young people from harm and will create safe, age-appropriate experiences for them on Facebook and Instagram. From now on, if anyone under the age of 16 (or under 18 in certain countries) joins Facebook or Instagram, then their account will be defaulted into more private settings.

Here the list of new privacy features which will be turned on by default for teenagers on Facebook.

• Who can see their friends list
• Who can see the people, Pages and lists they follow
• Who can see posts they're tagged in on their profile
• Reviewing posts, they're tagged in before the post appears on their profile
• Who is allowed to comment on their public posts

"We're now testing ways to protect teens from messaging suspicious adults they aren't connected to, and we won't show them in teens' People You May Know recommendations," Meta announced in its blog posts.

Along with that Meta is also testing a new feature which will remove the 'Message' button from teenagers' accounts. This will further restrict suspicious adults to send messages to teenagers if they are not in their friend list.

Further , the Mark Zuckerberg-led company is working with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to build a global platform for young people who are worried that their intimate thoughts might be shared on public online platforms without their consent. Additionally, Meta is also partnering with Thorn and their NoFiltr brand to create educational resources that will assist teenagers in reducing the shame and stigma attached with intimate images.

Meanwhile, you can report suspicious accounts on Facebook by visiting the report page on the platform.

• Open Facebook
• Go to the Page or Profile you want to report.
• Click on three dots below the Page's cover photo.
• Now select Find Support or Report Page.
• Tell how 'Page goes against our ( Facebook) Community Standards.
• And report the page.

Similarly, to report a message on Instagram:

• Open the conversation in the Instagram app.
• Tap the individual message you'd like to report.
• Tap next to the message.
• Tap Report.

In the same way, you can report the account by going on the account page > tap on the three dots on the top right corner of the page> Tap on report.