In a bid to enhance online safety, the company said users aged 13 to 15 will soon be able to create, save and display Stories and Spotlight videos on a dedicated profile that can only be viewed by friends who have mutually accepted each other.

Their content will no longer be distributed to people outside their friends list through Spotlight.

Previously, teenagers under 16 could post videos to Spotlight, Snapchat’s short-form video feature, but the content was not linked to their profiles.

While this prevented direct contact from strangers, the posts could still be viewed by a wider audience.

Under the new system, younger teens will share content in a more private environment. Snapchat will also remove engagement metrics such as favourite counts from profiles belonging to users in this age group.

The company said the changes are designed to help teenagers express themselves creatively without the pressure that usually comes with public posting and visible performance metrics.

Snapchat outlined different levels of access based on age. Users between 13 and 15 will be limited to sharing content with mutual friends.

Those aged 16 and 17 can choose to share content more broadly, but distribution will remain restricted to friends, followers and users with mutual connections.

Adults aged 18 and above will still have full access to public profiles and wider content distribution tools.

Alongside the latest changes, Snapchat said it will maintain several existing protections for users under 16.

The platform blocks messages from people teens have not added as friends or saved in their contacts. It also limits friend requests from people users may not know and displays warning messages when it detects a teenager may be chatting with a stranger.

The company says it will continually moderate public content before recommending it to larger audiences and take action against accounts that attempt to promote inappropriate material to teenagers.

Parents will also be able to monitor aspects of their children’s activity through Snapchat’s Family Centre.

The feature allows parents and caregivers to view their teenager’s friends list, see who they have communicated with recently, apply content restrictions, disable access to the My AI chatbot, share location information and report accounts they find concerning.

The update follows a trend across social media platforms, with services such as Instagram launching additional protections and specialised account settings for younger users.

Snap’s latest feature also comes as the company focuses on mitigating the impact of social media on young people.

Earlier this year, Snap settled a lawsuit that accused it of contributing to social media addiction and is still defending similar cases in courts across the United States.

Speaking to CNBC, Snap chief executive officer, Evan Spiegel, said Snapchat has a “positive impact” on users because it helps people stay connected with friends.

He argued that the platform should not be grouped together with competitors such as TikTok and Instagram.

The post Snapchat Launches Friends-Only Content Sharing for Users Under 16 appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

In response to issues over online child exploitation, sextortion, and grooming tactics that continue to surface across digital platforms, the new measures strengthen protections in two key areas: direct messaging features for teen users and account settings for profiles managed by adults that prominently feature children. 

Instagram’s teen accounts will now come with more explicit safety tools within direct messages (DMs). Users will be able to see when the account messaging them joined Instagram, access instant safety tips, and use a new feature that combines the block and report options in a single action. The aim is to make it easier for teenagers to cut off suspicious contacts and flag potential violators.

Meta said these additions build on existing safety notices that encourage caution during private chats. Data from June shows that teens took action after receiving these alerts, blocking over 1 million accounts and reporting another 1 million.

Also introduced is the “Location Notice,” which alerts users if they are communicating with someone in a different country, a feature designed to disrupt common tactics used in sextortion scams. The company says one in ten users tapped on the notice to learn more about their options for protection.

Nudity protection, another key feature, remains turned on by default for teen accounts. Meta disclosed that 99% of users, teens included, have opted to keep the filter active. In June alone, more than 40% of blurred images sent via DMs remained unopened, helping reduce exposure to graphic content.

“In May, people decided against forwarding around 45% of the time after seeing this warning,” Meta added.

In a parallel effort, Meta is extending parts of these protections to Instagram accounts managed by adults that focus heavily on children. These include parent-run profiles and accounts controlled by talent managers of young influencers. 

While Instagram prohibits under-13s from independently owning accounts, exceptions are made for accounts marked as being adult-managed on the child’s behalf.

Unfortunately, these accounts have also been targeted by abusers. According to Meta, some users have left sexualised comments or sent inappropriate DMs in violation of platform rules. The company is responding by automatically applying its strictest message settings to these profiles and enabling “Hidden Words,” a feature that filters out offensive language in comments.

Users managing such accounts will receive a notification at the top of their feed alerting them to these changes and prompting them to review their privacy settings.

Meta is also taking steps to make these child-focused accounts harder to discover for adults flagged as suspicious, especially those previously blocked by teens. The platform will prevent such adults from finding these profiles via search, hide their comments, and avoid suggesting either party to each other through recommendations. 

This builds on previous restrictions, including blocking such accounts from offering subscriptions or receiving digital gifts.

So far this year, Meta has taken down nearly 135,000 Instagram accounts for violating child protection rules, specifically those caught soliciting sexual content or making inappropriate comments on accounts featuring children. A further 500,000 accounts on both Facebook and Instagram connected to those flagged profiles were also removed.

“While these accounts are overwhelmingly used in benign ways, unfortunately, there are people who may try to abuse them, leaving sexualised comments under their posts or asking for sexual images in DMs, in clear violation of our rules,” Meta wrote.

Meta has not limited its response to its own platform. The company is sharing intelligence about abusive accounts with other tech firms through the Tech Coalition’s Lantern programme, acknowledging that predators often operate across multiple services.

This announcement also lands as regulators and child safety advocates, including the U.S. Surgeon General, among others, have criticised platforms like Instagram over their mental health impact on minors. Some U.S. states have even introduced laws requiring parental consent for underage social media use.

The post Meta Rolls Out Tougher Instagram Safeguards to Protect Teenagers, Children from Online Exploitation appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.