Teens can now only receive DMs from connections on Facebook and Instagram – Knowligent
Teens can now only receive DMs from connections on Facebook and Instagram

Teens can now only receive DMs from connections on Facebook and Instagram

HomeHow to, TechTeens can now only receive DMs from connections on Facebook and Instagram

One of the dangers of allowing teens to have their own Facebook and Instagram accounts is that random strangers (of any age) can reach out to them via direct messages. But Meta changes that.

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In a press release on Thursday, the company announced stricter messaging settings for teens using Facebook and Instagram. The new setting, which is enabled by default, applies to teens using supervised accounts and prevents anyone they don’t follow or aren’t connected to, including other teens, from directly messaging them or inviting them to a group chat.

The flaw here appears to be the “connected to” language, which Meta defines as “people they’re connected to via phone contacts.” While the measure still prevents teens from messaging complete strangers, it may not protect them from someone they already have in their contacts.

Either way, the changes will automatically apply to teens under 16 (or under 18 in some countries), even if they already have an existing account. When the feature is enabled, those teens will receive a notification at the top of their feed informing them of the changes.