Overview

• Meta applied its strictest direct messaging filters and enabled Hidden Words on adult-managed Instagram profiles that primarily feature children to block unwanted messages and offensive comments.
• Instagram Teen Accounts now display the month and year a contact joined and offer safety tips alongside a combined block-and-report button to help teens identify and manage potential scammers.
• Meta adjusted its algorithms to stop recommending child-focused profiles to suspicious adults, hide offensive comments, and restrict discovery in search results for accounts featuring minors.
• The company removed nearly 135,000 Instagram accounts for sexualizing children and an additional 500,000 linked profiles while teens blocked and reported over 1 million accounts each in June.
• These measures build on two years of evolving protections after parental supervision tools and Teen Accounts were introduced, and they respond to mounting scrutiny from health officials, state attorneys general and calls for legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act.