Instagram Introduces Safety Features to Limit Contact Between Adults and Teens

Instagram has introduced new safety measures to reduce the number of adults who message teenagers on the photo-sharing platform.

The app has banned adults from direct messaging teenagers who don’t follow them. It is also introducing ‘safety prompts’, that will shown to teens when try to message adults who have shown “potentially suspicious behaviour”.

Safety prompts give teenage users the option to report or block the adults who are messaging them. They will also remind younger users not to feel pressured to respond to messages and to “be careful sharing photos, videos, or information with someone you don’t know”.

Notices will appear when Instagram’s moderation systems spot suspicious behaviour from adult users, specifically directed at teens.

The company is not sharing detail on how these systems operate but says such suspicious behaviour could include sending “a large amount of friend or message requests to people under 18″.

Instagram says this feature is currently available in a select number of countries and should be globally available soon.

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