Facebook-owned photo sharing app Instagram has announced that it is set to roll out new features to keep in mind the safety of teenagers who make use of the platform.
In a blog post, the company has listed out 4 new features it is set to rollout. Here’s a look at them in a bit more detail:
Restricting DMs between teens and adults they don’t follow
Instagram will prevent adults from sending messages to people under 18 who don’t follow them. This means if any adult tries to message a teen who doesn’t follow them, they receive a notification that sending them a Direct Message (DM) is not an option.
“This feature relies on our work to predict peoples’ ages using machine learning technology, and the age people give us when they sign up,” added the company.
Prompting teens to be cautious
The platform will also “encourage” teens to be cautious by showing them safety notices in DMs. These safety notices are said to notify teens when an adult “who has been exhibiting potentially suspicious behaviour is interacting with them in DMs.”
In the safety notice, people will be able to see options to end the conversation, or block, report, or restrict the person.
Restricting adults with suspicious behaviour to find teens
Instagram said that in the coming weeks, it will explore ways to make it difficult for adults who have been exhibiting potentially suspicious behaviour to interact with teens.
This, the company suggests, will be done by restricting adults from seeing teen accounts in ‘Suggested Users’, preventing them from discovering teen content in Reels or Explore, and automatically hiding their comments on public posts by teens.
Encouraging teens to make their accounts private
For new users under the age of 18 who have set their account as public, Instagram says that it will send them a notification later on highlighting the benefits of a private account and reminding them to check their settings.