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At the beginning of November, around thirty American states accused Meta of having created functions within Facebook and Instagram capable of manipulating adolescents and children. Yesterday Mark Zuckerber placed more stringent limits on the content that young people can encounter.
The two social networks will begin to hide more types of posts, as indicated by the experts the platforms rely on to update their systems. «We hide more search results on Instagram related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders», we read in a note that specifies: «Although we allow people to share content that talks about struggles with suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, the Our policy is not to recommend this content.” Now, when people search for terms related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, they will start to hide these results and we will direct them to expert resources for help. This update will be available to everyone in the coming weeks. As Meta notes, more restrictive measures are being taken on content for the profiles of all teenagers, as well as a limit on searchable terms on Instagram.
What changes?
Through new notifications, Meta will guide subscribers towards a better understanding of privacy measures, using menus to update settings in just a few clicks. Content recommendation controls, known as “Sensitive Content Control” on Instagram and “Reduce” on Facebook, make it harder for people to come across potentially sensitive content or accounts in sections like Search and Explore. As a refresher, when a teen searches Instagram and Facebook for terms related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, the apps will hide the results, directing subscribers to resources for help.
Some examples.
Let’s take the example of a person who posts about their ongoing struggle with thoughts of self-harm. This is an important story, which can help destigmatize these issues, but at the same time it is a complex topic and not necessarily suitable for all young people. Now Facebook and Instagram will begin removing this type of content from teens’ experiences on Instagram and Facebook, as well as other types of content that is inappropriate for their age. ““We have long hidden results for suicide and self-harm searches that inherently violate our rules, and we are now expanding this protection to include more terms.”