Instagram has launched its new ‘Teen Accounts’ aimed at protecting teens from sextortion attempts on the social media platform, despite criticism that the measures do not go far enough.
Introduced on October 17, 2024, Meta described the measures as “a new experience for teens, guided by parents.”
Sextortion is the act of scammers tricking people into sending sexually explicit photographs, before blackmailing them. This has become a dominant form of intimate image abuse. Global law enforcement agencies have reported a huge rise in sextortion scams on social media, particularly targeting teenage boys.
The changes will be built in, limiting who can reach out to teens on the platform as well as the content they are exposed to, “and also provide new ways for teens to explore their interests.
“We’ll automatically place teens into Teen Accounts, and teens under 16 will need a parent’s permission to change any of these settings to be less strict.”
This move comes after a formal investigation was opened by European Union regulators against Meta last May for potential breaches of online content rules relating to child safety in its Facebook and Instagram platforms.
The EU Commission said that it was concerned that algorithmic systems could “exploit the weaknesses and inexperience” of children and stimulate “addictive behavior.”
Currently, on standard Instagram accounts, numerous algorithms are in play to determine how and when an individual should be shown a certain piece of suggested content. The algorithms use hundreds of factors such as user history, location, profile, device, trends, relevance, popularity and more to suggest content and put it in front of a user.
Despite the BBC reporting that the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said that the new moves were a “step in the right direction,” former Meta employee turned whistle blower Arturo Béjar told the BBC that there were better ways to make the platform safe for younger audiences.
"The most impactful thing they could do is make it easy for a teen to flag when they think the account asking to follow them is pretending to be a teen," Mr Béjar said. "The way the product is designed, by the time they need to report for sextortion the damage is already done."
Yvonne Johnson, President, National PTA commented:
“Given that parents today are grappling with the benefits and challenges of the internet and digital media for their teens, our association applauds Meta for launching Instagram Teen Accounts. With teens automatically placed in Teen Accounts and certain privacy settings turned on by default, this update demonstrates that Meta is taking steps to empower parents and deliver safer, more age-appropriate experiences on the platform.”
However, Meta has been criticized for not rolling these protections out across its other platforms, including WhatsApp, “where grooming and sextortion also take place at scale,” according to Richard Collard, the NSPCC's associate head of child safety online policy.
Teenagers who sign up for Instagram today will be placed into Teen Accounts, and any teens already using the platform will be notified and moved over beginning next week across the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, introducing Teen Accounts into the EU later this year.
To combat teens lying about their age, Meta is “building technology to proactively find accounts belonging to teens, even if the account lists an adult birthday.
“This technology will allow us to proactively find these teens and place them in the same protections offered by Teen Account settings. We’ll start testing this change in the US early next year.”
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