The restrictions affect posts related to body image and mental health.
Meta is experimenting with new limits on the type of content teens can interact with on Instagram. The company says it will now try to limit “repeated” exposure to posts about anxiety, weightlifting, nutrition and other content that might be inappropriate for younger users to see en masse.
The new limits come after Meta took steps last year to prevent teens from seeing “sexually suggestive” content and blocked “adult search terms,” like queries related to alcohol and gore. The company said at the time that parents should view its teen accounts as analogous to a PG-13 movie, a comparison that was roundly rejected by the Motion Picture Association.
With the latest change, it appears Meta wants to limit repeated exposure to the types of posts that don’t violate its rules but can have a negative impact on teens when viewed in large quantities. According to Meta, this could include content related to body image, like nutrition and weightlifting, as well as mental health, like “how to deal with anxiety.” The goal, according to Meta, is for these topics “to be balanced with other types of content rather than being shown repeatedly.” The limits will apply to recommendations that teens see in their feed, as well as in Explore and Reels.
Instagram, in particular, has long questioned whether it leads young users down so-called algorithmic “rabbit holes” in which teens end up seeing repeated recommendations for content that affects their mental health and self-esteem. The topic also came up during a high-profile civil trial over social media addiction in Los Angeles. The jury in this case ultimately ruled against Meta.
Meta also revealed that it plans to expand its more restrictive content settings for teen accounts on other platforms, including Facebook and Messenger. The new settings will roll out to these apps “later this year.”
