Ever received a weird DM on Instagram that just didn’t sit right? Or wondered who’s really behind that new profile texting you? If you’re a teen or a parent of one, you’ll be glad to know Instagram is stepping up its safety game. Instagram is making it easier for teens to stay safe while chatting.
A new update adds helpful tips and context right inside DMs. For example, teens can now see when an account was created, which helps them spot suspicious users. Even if both accounts follow each other, Instagram will now show reminders like “you don’t have to chat if something feels off.”
Another change? A “Block and Report” option appears right when a teen wants to block someone in DMs, Meta explained in a newsroom post. This combines two actions into one easy step. It’s all about making it quicker to stop conversations that don’t feel right.
Instagram: New Safety Features for Teens
Instagram’s nudity protection feature, which blurs sensitive content, is still turned on by default for teen accounts. In June, nearly half the blurred images were never opened, showing that many teens chose to avoid them altogether. Also, Instagram continues to alert users when they might be chatting with someone from a different country, which can be a sign of a scam.
Moreover, Instagram is now extending safety settings to accounts run by adults that mostly share content of children, like parents posting about their kids or talent managers running a page for a child actor. These accounts will now automatically have stricter DM settings and hidden word filters turned on to catch offensive comments.
Plus, Instagram is taking extra steps to prevent adults with questionable behaviour — like those blocked by teens, from finding or interacting with these child-centred accounts.
Apart from these, Meta has also removed over 135,000 accounts for breaking its rules by targeting child-focused accounts, the newsroom report mentioned. Another half a million linked accounts were also taken down across Instagram and Facebook.
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