Teens on Facebook and Instagram Can No Longer Receive DMs From Strangers

Meta is introducing today stricter measures to protect teenagers on Instagram and Facebook from unwanted contacts from strangers. Moreover, teens will now need approval from their parents to change their default safety and privacy settings.

Two years ago, Meta prevented adults over 19 from messaging teenagers on Instagram who don’t follow them. Starting today, Meta is going even further by making all teens on Instagram and Facebook Messenger unable to receive messages from strangers, including other teens.

On Instagram, this means that teens under 16 (or under 18 in some countries) can’t receive DMs from people they don’t follow or aren’t already connected to. On Facebook Messenger, however, teens will only be able to receive messages from Facebook friends or phone contacts.

Meta also announced today that it’s working on a new feature to protect teens from potentially inappropriate images in messages sent by their contacts. This feature will also discourage them from sharing such images. “We’ll have more to share on this feature, which will also work in encrypted chats, later this year,” the company said today.

Lastly, Meta is improving its parental supervision tools with a new prompt that parents will see when their teens ask to change their default safety and privacy settings to a less strict state. Parental supervision tools already allow parents to set time limits, schedule breaks, and be notified when teens report other users or change some privacy settings on Instagram and Facebook.