In an effort to enhance user safety, Meta, the parent company of popular social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, has announced the rollout of comprehensive parental control tools. These tools are designed to provide parents with greater oversight and enable a safer online experience for their teenage children. With increasing concerns about child safety in the digital world, Meta’s latest endeavor aims to address these issues head-on.
The new parental control features include:
- Messenger’s Parental Supervision Hub: A new parental supervision hub in Messenger, which will allow parents to see who their teen is messaging, how often they are messaging, and what they are messaging about. It will be available to parents of teens who are 13 years old or older.
- Proactive Blocking of Unwanted DMs: A feature that pre-emptively blocks unwanted DMs on Messenger and Instagram. This feature will use artificial intelligence to identify and block messages that are likely to be spam, phishing, or harassment. It will be available to all users of Messenger and Instagram.
- Encouraging Healthy Habits: Nudges to remind teens that they should take a break from using Instagram. These nudges will appear after a teen has been using the app for a certain amount of time, and they will encourage the teen to take a break and do something else. It will be available to teens who are 13 years old or older.
The new parental control tools are available in the US, UK, and Canada, and they will be rolled out to more countries in the coming months.
In addition to the new parental control tools, Meta is also making changes to its reporting tools on Instagram. These changes will make it easier for teens to report harmful content, and they will also give parents more information about the content that their teens have reported.
The new parental control tools and reporting features are part of Meta’s ongoing efforts to make its platforms safer for teens. The company has been under fire in recent years for the way it handles child safety, and these new tools are an attempt to address those concerns.
To set up the new parental control tools, parents will need to create a Meta account and then add their teen as a dependent. Once the teen is added, parents will be able to access the parental supervision hub and the other new tools.
Meta’s introduction of these comprehensive parental control tools marks a significant step in prioritizing user safety, especially for teenage users. By empowering parents with greater visibility and control over their children’s online activities, Meta aims to foster a safer and more responsible social media experience.
Source: Meta Newsroom
