Meta is to hide harmful posts from teenage accounts.

Meta is trying to protect the wellbeing of their teenage users

Meta is trying to protect the wellbeing of their teenage users

The social media conglomerate behind Facebook and Instagram wants its young users to have "age-appropriate experiences " on their platforms and has decided to remove content relating to issues such as self-harm from their feeds.

Meta said: "We want teens to have safe, age-appropriate experiences on our apps. Take the example of someone posting about their ongoing struggle with thoughts of self-harm. This is an important story, and can help destigmatize these issues, but it’s a complex topic and isn’t necessarily suitable for all young people. Now, we’ll start to remove this type of content from teens’ experiences on Instagram and Facebook, as well as other types of age-inappropriate content."

Teenage users will soon have the the option to "turn on recommended settings" - which will cause the update to kick in - when the setting rolls out over the coming days and weeks.

Later this month, Meta CEO is one of a handful of social media bosses who will testify about prioritizing children’s safety on their platforms, having agreed to do so.

The hearing comes as social media platform moderation and policies have faced massive scrutiny from Congress, resulting in the Judiciary Committee voting in favour of legislation in the recent months that aim to deal with the growing problem.


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