The owner of Meta Platforms has announced that users under 16 won’t be able to livestream or unblur nudity in direct messages they’ve received without parental approval.
ABC News said that Meta’s teen account program for Instagram was launched September to give parents more options to supervise their children’s online activity.
The latest changes will affect users in the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia, before going global in a few months.
Under the changes, teens under 16 are blocked from using Instagram Live unless parents give permission. They also need permission to “turn off our feature that blurs images containing suspected nudity” in direct messages, Meta said in a blog post.
“We want to make it easier for parents to have peace of mind when it comes to their teens’ experiences across Meta’s apps, so today, we’ll begin making Teen Accounts available on Facebook and Messenger,” the Silicon Valley-based company said. “Teen Accounts on Facebook and Messenger will offer similar, automatic protections to limit inappropriate content and unwanted contact, as well as ways to ensure teens’ time is well spent.”
Meta said it’s extending the teen account safeguards to its Facebook and Messenger platforms.
The company also mentioned that at least 54 million teen accounts have been set up since the program launched in September.
