Nude image filter and no live videos: Meta widet teen accounts

Young people who use Instagram automatically end up in a teen account. This means that you can only use the photo and video platform to a limited extent. Meta explains that the process with which the young users had been transferred has now been completed. The teen accounts should now also move in on Facebook and the messenger. However, this happens first in the USA, Great Britain, Australia and Canada.

On Instagram, the live function for young people has recently been deactivated by default. This means that you do not see live videos and cannot start it, but you can activate the function. The nude image filter cannot be issued alone. For this attitude, the consent of the parents’ supervision, which is set up in the teen accounts, requires. The Nudity Protection, as Meta calls it, automatically pixes images in which too much bare skin can be seen. This happens in private messages – but is evaluated locally on the device. If you get such a recording sent, you will also get an indication of Instagram that you shouldn’t feel compelled to answer someone. The sender is immediately told that he should rethink his actions, including reference to the risks that were accompanied by sending nude pictures.

Instagram has several methods to find out how old one person is. Of course, AI and monitoring of behavior also helps. If someone tries to change their age, mechanisms for age verification, for example. This includes an ID check or video selfies, which in turn are evaluated. According to Meta, these tests have so far worked in 96 percent of young people who tried to change their age to over 18.

Young people and social networks

While the teen accounts and parental supervision have been around for a while, Meta has so far not introduced any similar functions on Facebook and the messenger. With both services you will probably find significantly fewer young people. Nevertheless, this should now be made up for.

Other social networks such as Tikkok and Snapchat also offer separate accounts for young people. Children are not yet allowed to use social media in Germany, at least not if they are under the age of 13. This regulates the Media State Treaty. The respective age is not explicitly defined, but the range of functions and the associated limits. Data from young people are also subject to the GDPR and must not be processed and used in the same form as those of adults.