KUALA LUMPUR: With children under the age of 16 soon to be barred from creating social media accounts alone, Meta has stepped up efforts to protect teens using its online services.
The parent company of Instagram and Facebook said that since 2024, all accounts registered to users aged 13 to 17 are automatically classified as teen accounts.
Meta Asia-Pacific Products public policy director Philip Chua said these accounts are automatically locked to private status and require parental approval to be changed.
"Under private accounts, teens must approve new followers, and non-followers cannot view or interact with their content," he said.
Chua said for users aged 13 to 15, changing to a public account requires parental permission.
Those aged 16 to 17 can keep their current settings or be set to private by default, he told a press briefing on Tuesday (March 10).
Teen accounts cannot receive message requests from people they do not follow or are not connected with.
Only people they follow can tag them, mention them or remix their Reels.
Chua said users will see additional context in chats, including safety tips and the date the other account joined the platform.
"This information appears prominently at the top of new chats to help teens identify suspicious accounts or scams," he said.
Teen account users cannot go live or view broadcasts flagged as not being age-appropriate.
Chua said content displayed to these accounts is automatically filtered by algorithms to be more suitable for their age.
The platforms also notify users to close the app after one hour of daily use and mute notifications from 10pm to 7am.
To grant permissions, parents must have their own accounts and be registered as the parent account of the teen.
Parent accounts can then modify limits, enforce blocking restrictions and manage usage time.
Chua said Meta is also investing in AI to better identify teen accounts and ensure they receive age-appropriate experiences.
