Meta makes strides in protecting teen privacy on social media
In response to increasing concerns about the privacy of young people on social media, Facebook and Instagram have announced new features to help protect the information of users aged 13 to 18.
Starting next month, teens on both platforms will have the option to make their posts private by default, meaning only people who are approved by the user will be able to see them. In addition, Facebook and Instagram will begin using artificial intelligence to automatically flag potentially sensitive images that may be shared without the user’s consent.
The updated privacy policies will have an impact on:
- Who has access to their list of friends?
- Who has access to the persons, pages, and lists that they join?
- Who can view the posts they’ve been tagged in on their profile?
- Examining posts in which they have been tagged prior exist on their profile
- Who is permitted to leave comments on their public posts?
Facebook’s Zuckerberg organization is also testing methods to protect its teenage users from contact with suspicious adults in their People You May Know list. The accounts of suspicious adults won’t be seen by teens browsing this listing, the company’s blog post explained.
According to the company, a suspicious account belongs to an adult that has been recently blocked or reported by a young person.
The company encourages individuals under 18 to use the new safety and security tools. They are also encouraged to share anything that makes them feel uneasy.
according to the blog post on the website still provoke teenagers to report accounts to us after they block an individual, and we’re sending safety notices regarding the Internet on Messenger’s ranking screen in 2021 to help such users gain information. The month after that, Messenger plans to make over 100 million users receive safety and security alert messages. Through our reporting tools, we made it easier to find our reporting tools and, consequently, we received more reports by minors in Q1 of 2022 than in Q1 of 2019 on our Messenger and Instagram DMs.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, the number of cybercrime cases registered against children in India increased by 400% in 2020 as compared to 2019. The data also revealed that the majority of the child victims were aged between 12 and 18 years.
The increase in cybercrime cases against children can be attributed to the increasing use of the internet and social media platforms by them. Moreover, children are often unaware of the potential risks associated with sharing personal information online. This makes them easy targets for cybercriminals who can exploit their personal data for illegal purposes.
The NCRB data highlights the need for greater awareness about cybercrime among children and their parents or guardians. Children should be taught about the importance of maintaining online privacy and security, and how to identify and report suspicious online activity.
“We’re collaborating with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to establish a worldwide platform for kids who are concerned that personal photographs they made may be broadcast on public web platforms without their permission.” This platform will be comparable to the work we’ve done to prevent adults from sharing personal photographs without their consent. It will enable us to assist in preventing a teen’s personal photographs from being shared online and can be utilized by other firms in the IT sector. “We’ll have more information on this new resource to offer in the coming weeks,” Meta stated.
Some of the specific changes that will be made include:
-Teens will be able to choose whether their profile is public or private, and they will be able to control who can see their posts.
-Parental consent will be required for teens to share certain types of information, such as their phone number or email address.
-Teens will be given more information about how their data is used and shared on Facebook and Instagram.