Australian children who join Facebook will automatically have stricter privacy settings under a global shift by the social media giant to protect young people.
The change began Tuesday for Australian children under 16, and teens who are already using the app will be asked to limit what others can see on their profiles.
This includes your friends list, people and Pages you follow, and posts you’re tagged in.
The move is part of a series of measures touted by Facebook’s parent company Meta, aimed at making Facebook and Instagram safer for teens.
Default privacy settings for kids have already been published on Instagram, also owned by Meta.
Antigone Davis, vice president and head of global safety at Meta, said in a blog post Tuesday that it is testing more ways to stop teens from sending messages to “suspicious” adults they don’t know. said in
Adults can be blacklisted as suspicious by Facebook and Instagram if young people block or report them recently.
During testing, these adults do not appear in the teenager’s “People You May Know” suggestions.
Instagram is also trying to remove message buttons on children’s profiles when suspicious adults click on them.
In addition, Meta has teamed up with the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to create a global campaign for teens concerned about their personal images being shared online without their consent. creating a platform.
The platform will help Meta prevent these images from being posted online, allowing other tech companies to use them, Davis said.
“Sharing personal images without consent can be very traumatic. We do everything we can to discourage teens from sharing these images on our app. I would like to do
The social media giant plans a campaign to stop people from sharing exploitative child content online.
According to Meta research, more than three-quarters of people who post exploitative child content on social media are not malicious.
New default privacy settings apply to teenagers under 18 in some countries.
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Australian Associated Press is an Australian news agency.