Meta introduces stricter privacy measures for young people

So writes Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, in a weblog (1).

Accusations against Meta

Meta has long been accused of doing too little to protect young people on its platforms. The company collects a lot of data from children and sells this data to ad network providers to then serve them personalized advertisements. This puts their privacy at risk, while the General Data Protection Regulation (AVG) requires companies and organizations to pay "particular attention" to "activities aimed at children" (Article 57.1.b).

Another accusation Meta regularly hears is that it does not adequately protect young people from adults with bad intentions, such as child molesters and pedophiles. At first glance, contact seems innocent and friendly, until things go from bad to worse. Think cyberbullying, cyberstalking or sextortion. This can produce traumatic experiences and a high level of distrust of adults and peers.

Last year, Meta took some measures to better protect teens. For example, adults can no longer send messages to teens if they are not connected. Also, adults do not appear in the "People You May Know" recommendations.

These new privacy settings launch Meta

On Monday, Meta presented more new measures to protect children under 16. The tech company has developed a number of tools that allow young people to tell Facebook and Instagram if they don't feel comfortable using the apps. Meta wants to encourage them to use these tools, and with success. The first quarter of this year saw a 70 percent increase in reports from young people.

Young people under 16 who create an account on Facebook or Instagram are given more private settings by default. Teens already using these apps are encouraged to enable these privacy settings. With them, a pop-up window appears on the screen where they can adjust these settings with a few clicks.

These are the following privacy settings:

• Who can see their friends list;

• Who can see people, pages and lists they follow;

• Who can see posts they are tagged in on their profile;

• Viewing posts in which they are tagged before the post appears on their profile; and

• Who may respond to their public posts.

Also, it is no longer possible for teens under the age of 16 to send messages to users with a suspicious account. A "suspicious account" is an adult account that has recently been blocked or reported by a young user. Furthermore, Meta is testing to remove the message button from young people's Instagram accounts when viewed by adults.

This is how Meta wants to combat sextortion

To combat the spread of intimate photos and videos, Meta is partnering with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Together, they are working on a global platform for teens who fear than intimate images are being distributed online without their consent. "With this, we can help prevent intimate images of teens from being posted online and it can be used by other companies in the technology sector," Meta said.

Furthermore, the American technology company is working with the organization Thorn and their brand NoFiltrom to develop educational materials. The goal is to reduce the shame and stigma surrounding intimate imagery, and to arm young people if they encounter sextortion. Finally, Meta has developed a guide for parents that gives them tips on how to talk to their son or daughter about taking and sharing intimate photos and videos.

1. Protecting Teens and Their Privacy on Facebook and Instagram