"introduced mandatory teen accounts on Instagram in September 2024, amid growing regulatory and media pressure to tackle online harm in the US and the UK. However, Bejar said although Meta consistently makes promises about how its teen accounts protect children from sensitive or harmful content, inappropriate contact, harmful interactions and give control over use, these safety tools are mostly ineffective, unmaintained, quietly changed, or removed."
"Because of Meta's lack of transparency, who knows how long this has been the case, and how many teens have experienced harm in the hands of Instagram as a result of Meta's negligence and misleading promises of safety, which create a false and dangerous sense of security. Kids, including many under 13, are not safe on Instagram. This is not about bad content on the internet, it's about careless product design."
Mandatory teen accounts were introduced on Instagram in September 2024 amid regulatory and media pressure in the US and UK. Testing using accounts that imitated a teenager, a parent and a malicious adult analysed 47 safety tools in March and June 2025. Two-thirds (64%) of the new safety tools proved ineffective, with 30 tools placed in a red category indicating easy circumvention or failure. Many safety features are unmaintained, quietly changed, or removed, creating a false sense of security for children. Product design and implementation choices are selecting, promoting and bringing inappropriate content, contact and compulsive use to children, including those under 13.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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