Meta dropped some insights around the actions it took on harmful accounts earlier this year. Its specialist teams pulled the plug on over 135,000 Instagram accounts "for leaving sexualized comments or requesting sexual images from adult-managed accounts featuring children under 13."
The social media giant also purged another 500,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to the original accounts as part of the cleanup process. Users who were targeted by such accounts were also informed about the removal.
Sharing insights on the impact of previously launched safety features, Meta stated that 99% of people, including teens, have not disabled the nudity protection feature since it was rolled out last year. The feature, enabled by default for teens, blurs inappropriate images in DMs and warns against forwarding them.
Meta said that exposure to unwanted nudity was reduced, as over 40% of blurred images received in DMs stayed blurred in June. The warnings displayed in the app motivated people to decide against suspected nude images around 45% of the time in May.
Some new safety features have been added for teens on Instagram to give them more context about the accounts they"re messaging. They will now see the month and year an account joined Instagram, predominantly displayed at the top of new chats, alongside new options to view safety tips and block an account.
Instagram DMs now have a new block and report option that teens can use to take both actions together. "While we’ve always encouraged people to both block and report, this new combined option will make this process easier, and help make sure potentially violating accounts are reported to us, so we can review and take action," Meta said in a press release.
The company is also introducing some teen safety features to adult-managed accounts that primarily feature children, including parents or talent managers who operate accounts representing teens or children under 13.
Meta"s teen account protections will automatically set these accounts to its strictest message settings to prevent unwanted messages and turn on Hidden Words to filter out offensive comments. The company will avoid recommending such accounts to potentially suspicious adults and vice versa.
Allowing teens on social media is a sensitive issue, and Meta has faced legal trouble in the past. Still, the company is finding ways to make the platform safe for teens and increase its user base, such as blocking DMs from unfollowed accounts, giving more control to parents, and using AI to push suspected underage users to teen accounts.
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