Social media has been beneficial when it comes to meeting new people and communicating with others all over the world. However, the lack of restrictions has made it a dangerous place for younger users, and Meta aims to change that.
No More DMs from Strangers
It's no secret that Instagram is full of people who tend to cross the line when messaging others, and sometimes, these are directed to users under the age of 18. This can lead to traumatizing experiences for them, which is why Meta is making some policy changes to avoid it.
Previously, it was only adults over the age of 19 who could not send messages to minors if they were not followed by the user. Now, all accounts fall under the restriction no matter what the age of the sender is, as reported by Ars Technica.
This will be the default setting which is meant to prevent teens from getting "unwanted contact," according to Meta. The same will be applied to Facebook Messenger, where accounts that are not on the user's friends list of phone contacts will not be able to send messages.
The shift is a welcome change, especially since harassment via social media continues to grow to this day. Acknowledging the current culture of users trying to find attractive people on social media, some may be a little too forward than others are comfortable with.
The new policy was prompted by the return of a former engineer for safety and security on Meta, Arturo Bejar after his 14-year-old daughter along with her friends experienced these harassments first-hand.
They were said to be subjected to repeated "unwanted sexual advances, misogyny, and harassment" on Instagram. In his research, he also found that there were "staggering levels of abuse" that target young users, 13% of whom are within the 13-15 year old age bracket.
Users on Instagram who are minors will see a notification informing them of the new policy, which can be found at the top of their feeds. Minors can disable this setting any time they want, aside from supervised accounts who will need parental permission to make the changes.
How to Stay Safe on Social Media
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are usually where you get to share moments from your life as well as your thoughts through photos and texts. Unfortunately, there will always be those who are not very well-mannered towards other users.
Posting photos on Instagram could attract strangers who would make unwanted advances, and shared thoughts could be engaged by people who don't agree. The best thing to do in these situations is to ignore them.
If they happen to be violating the rules of the platform or making you feel uncomfortable, the next step would be to report their accounts and then block them. To avoid further unwanted interactions, making your account private will keep random accounts from seeing the things you post.
Sadly, these are not foolproof measures. If you keep your account public, there will be no shortage of creeps that could send you DMs, and even in private accounts, these untoward messages could still come from people you follow.
