Meta activates Facebook 'teen accounts' worldwide
PARIS: Meta said on Thursday (Sep 25) it was activating so-called "teen accounts" with added protections for adolescent Facebook and Messenger users worldwide, months after the feature was rolled out in major English-speaking countries.
"We’ve placed hundreds of millions of teens in Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, and now we’re expanding them to teens around the world on Facebook and Messenger," the US company said in a blog post.
NEW SAFEGUARDS FOR ADOLESCENTS
Meta’s teen accounts, which include stronger security settings, content restrictions and parental controls for users aged 13 to 17, were first introduced on Instagram last year.
In April, the company extended them across Facebook and the Messenger chat service in the United States, Canada, Australia and Britain.
PARENTAL CONTROLS REQUIRED
The restrictions are "designed to address parents’ top concerns with automatic protections to limit who their teens are talking to online and the content they’re seeing, and ensure their time is well spent," Meta said.
The limits cannot be removed without parental consent for users under 16.
Concerns have grown in recent years about young people’s use of social media, with critics warning of excessive screen time and insufficient moderation on some platforms.
