Meta launches much stricter message setting for teens on Facebook and Instagram

Following its recent changes to the teen experience on its social apps, Meta announced a harsher change intended to protect teens from unwanted contact.

After limiting teens’ ability to see sensitive content on Instagram and Facebook, Meta introduced today a stricter message setting for teens who are using these two social apps.

Until now, Meta restricted adults over 19 from messaging teens who don’t follow them. Also, the company limits the type and number of DMs people will be able to send to someone who doesn’t follow them to one text-only message.

The new setting announced today makes it possible to turn off teens’ ability to receive DMs from anyone they don’t follow or aren’t connected to on Instagram, including other teens, by default.

When the new setting is toggled on, teens will only receive messages from people they already follow or are connected to. According to Meta, teens in “supervised accounts” must get their parents’ permission to change this setting.

The new default setting will apply to all teens under the age of 16 (or under 18 in certain countries). Those affected will receive a notification about the new changes on Instagram at the top of their Feed.

Apart from Instagram, Meta revealed that it’s also changing teens’ default settings on Messenger, so those under 16 (or 18 in certain countries) will only receive messages from Facebook friends, or people they’re connected to through phone contacts.

Finally, Meta plans to launch another feature that will help protect teens from seeing unwanted and potentially inappropriate images in their message from people they’re already connected to.