Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Meta will make teenagers’ accounts on its Instagram photo-sharing app private by default, as the industry comes under fire over social media’s impact on young people.The $1.3tn platform said on Tuesday that teenagers’ accounts would be visible only to their followers unless they or their parents change their privacy settings. These users will also see less content deemed “sensitive” under the platform’s new “teen accounts” feature.Users aged 16 or over will be able to change the settings themselves to make their profiles public and access sensitive content.But under-16s will now need to sign up to a “parental supervision” feature on the app to gain permission.“The new teen account protections are designed to address parents’ biggest concerns, including who their teens are talking to online, the content they’re seeing and whether their time is being well spent,” Meta said in a blog post on Tuesday. Social media platforms have faced criticism for doing too little to protect minors using their platforms from harmful or inappropriate content and from child predators and sexual exploitation. Concerns have also been mounting over the perceived negative mental health and addictive effects of the technology. Meta, in particular, has been attempting to draw teen users to its Instagram app to compete with fast-growing rivals such as ByteDance’s TikTok, while its flagship Facebook platform has been losing traction with a younger audience. However, in January, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was compelled to issue a dramatic apology live before US Congress to the families of children who had been victims of sexual exploitation and abuse on his platforms. Dozens of US state attorneys-general have filed lawsuits against the platform for its role in child harms. Meta plans to introduce the new features globally on Instagram over the course of the year and across its other apps including Facebook next year, Tuesday’s post said.The group said it was working on technology to root out teens who lie about their age and to establish the credentials of people claiming to be parents. Under the new supervision system, parents will be able to see the topics their teen is browsing and who they are messaging, but not the messages. They will also be able to add restrictions, such as blocking their child’s access to the app at night.Both the parent and the teen have to agree to the parental supervision setting. Forcing social media platforms to address child safety is a rare issue with bipartisan support in the US. Congress has backed legislation that places a duty of care on social media platforms to protect children from harmful online content, but the bill has yet to receive final approval. The European Commission in May opened an in-depth probe into Meta under its Digital Services Act, looking at whether the platform has “appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors”.The UK’s Online Safety Act, passed nearly a year ago, is considered among the strictest pieces of legislation to protect underage internet users from harmful content.
