Instagram is testing a new content restriction for younger users. The new system will reduce young people seeing consecutive posts on topics such as nutrition, weight lifting, body image and coping with anxiety. Meta is expanding its 13 content settings globally across Instagram as well as Facebook and Messenger. Instagram tests new content limit for teens Meta has announced a new security test for teen accounts on Instagram.
The new feature will limit younger users from seeing some types of content repeatedly. This includes content that does not directly violate the platform rules, but is deemed unsuitable for young users to watch repeatedly. The new limitation will work in Instagram’s recommendation system. It will be reduced for young people to see the same type of content repeatedly in the Feed, Explore and Reels areas. Among the examples given by Meta are topics such as nutrition, weight lifting, body image and coping with anxiety.
These contents will not be completely removed from the platform. Instagram will prevent such posts from being heavily recommended to young users. Meta wants these topics to appear in balance with other types of content. However, it was not announced at what exact thresholds the new system would come into effect. According to Engadget, this step came after criticism that Instagram put young users into algorithmic content cycles.
The platform has been on the agenda for a long time with claims that it constantly recommends similar content to young people, especially on mental health, self-esteem and body image. Social media addiction and the content that young users encounter on the platforms have also been the subject of discussion in lawsuits in the USA. Last year, Meta introduced stricter content settings for young accounts in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada.
In this arrangement, young users were set to 13 content settings by default. The company announced that it prepared this setting inspired by movie rating systems and parental feedback. According to Meta’s statement, 9 out of 10 of the young users who were set to this setting continued to stay in the same setting. The company also introduced the Limited Content setting for parents who want a tighter option. This option protects teens from further content and turns off access to comments.
With the new announcement, 13 content settings are rolled out globally to teen accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Messenger. On Facebook, the default setting of 13 will hide content that is not suitable for young people in areas such as Feed and Reels. In addition, young people’s interaction with profiles, pages, groups and events that regularly share inappropriate content will be limited. A similar protection comes into play on the Messenger side.
Young users will be restricted from seeing links to inappropriate Facebook content or chatting with accounts that regularly share inappropriate content on Facebook. The Limited Content setting will be available for Facebook and Messenger later in the year. Meta announced that it also received feedback from parents while expanding the content settings. According to the information provided by the company, hundreds of thousands of parents around the world have evaluated the suitability of more than 15 million content on Facebook and Instagram.
In the latest survey, conducted in late April in the US, UK, Australia and Canada, less than 2 percent of Facebook posts recommended to teens were deemed inappropriate for teens by the majority of parents. Meta has also opened Teen Accounts content settings to external review. The company asked online security organization Alice to subject Instagram teen accounts to rigorous testing. Alice compared the teen account experience on Instagram to a rival platform’s teen experience and 13 movie rating criteria.
According to Alice’s assessment, Instagram Teen Accounts saw 68 percent less adult content on the default 13 setting than the rival platform’s teen experience. At the stricter Limited Content setting, this rate increased to 96 percent. The evaluation also stated that Instagram blocks adult search terms more frequently than its rival. The Alice report also included two areas of improvement. The first of these was the exceptions seen in systems that prevent interaction with some accounts that regularly share age-inappropriate content.
Meta announced that it updated its detection signals following these detections. The second area of development was risky shows and viral challenges. Alice researchers determined that most of the limited samples of mature content encountered on Instagram contained such posts. Meta announced that the content known as “car surfing”, which involves standing on a moving vehicle, was not explicitly addressed within the scope of the policies before, and the policies were subsequently updated.
Meta’s use of the expression 13 for young accounts had previously created a controversy with the Motion Picture Association. The agency objected to Meta’s association of the Instagram Teen Accounts experience with a PG-13 movie rating. Meta later agreed to tone down the trope in her communications, adding to her statement that there are differences between social media content moderation and the movie rating system. Instagram’s new test intervenes not only in banned content on younger accounts, but also in categories of content that could create problems through heavy repetition.
In this context, a new suggestion limit is being introduced to reduce young people’s exposure to suggestions with the same theme.
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