‘Dapat hiwalay Facebook ng matatanda’? Wish granted

• Photo from Pixabay

By San Matildo

Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, has officially launched its Teen Accounts globally — a move designed to give young users a safer space online.

“A year ago, we introduced Teen Accounts — a significant step to help keep teens safe across our apps. As of today, we’ve placed hundreds of millions of teens in Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger,” Meta announced in a blog post.

After initially rolling out on Instagram, Teen Accounts are now available to users worldwide on Facebook and Messenger.

According to Facebook Help Center Teen Accounts are automatically applied to users aged 13 to 17 and come with default safety settings.

These include limiting unwanted contact by allowing teens to share content only with their friends and restricting Messenger chats to friends and approved connections.

The system also filters out potentially sensitive or inappropriate content so that teens are shown age-appropriate posts.

To encourage healthier online habits, teens receive reminders to log off between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. and after they have spent one hour on the app each day.

According to Meta, these protections were created to address parents’ top concerns, from reducing risky interactions to limiting excessive screen time.

Teen users also have the option to set up parental supervision. For those aged 13 to 15, settings can be made more protective on their own, but any attempt to loosen restrictions requires parental approval.

For those aged 16 to 17, safety settings can be adjusted independently unless supervision has been activated.

Parents who enable supervision can help manage their teen’s settings, monitor the time they spend on the app, and view their list of friends or blocked contacts.

However, they cannot see private chats or search history unless the teen shares them directly.

“While there’s always more work to be done, we’re encouraged to see that Teen Accounts are bringing parents more peace of mind when it comes to their teens’ online experiences,” Meta said.