Meta safety updates were announced on Wednesday to better protect teens and children online.
The company rolled out a new “Location Notice” on Instagram to fight cross border sextortion scams and added stronger teen account level protections.
It also expanded nudity protection and simplified ways for teens to block and report suspicious accounts.
The company said teen users will now see more context inside DMs, including safety tips, account creation dates, and a one tap option to block and report a sender.
In June alone, teens used safety notices to block 1 million accounts and reported another 1 million.
Meta safety updates: Location Notice, teen protections, and mass account removals
Instagram’s new “Location Notice” alerts users when they are chatting with someone in another country, a common tactic in sextortion schemes.
Over 10% tapped to learn what steps to take after seeing the alert, Meta said.
Nudity protection remains on by default and automatically blurs suspected nude images in DMs.
As of June, 99% of people, including teens, kept the feature turned on.
Meta said nearly 45% of users chose not to forward explicit images after receiving a warning, showing a clear deterrent effect.
For accounts run by adults that prominently feature children such as those managed by parents or talent agents, Meta is now enabling teen account level protections.
Strict message controls and Hidden Words will be switched on to filter offensive comments.
Meta will also reduce the visibility of these accounts to suspicious users, making them harder to discover via search or recommendations.
This builds on earlier steps like blocking gifts and paid subscriptions for such profiles.
Enforcement has intensified. Meta removed nearly 135,000 Instagram accounts for posting sexualised comments or requesting sexual images from child focused, adult managed accounts under 13.
It also took down an additional 500,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to those original profiles.
Meta said it is working with other tech companies through the Tech Coalition’s Lantern programme to stop harmful actors from reappearing on different platforms, aiming to close the gaps exploited by repeat offenders.
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