Google's Age Assurance: A Step Towards Safer Online Experience

We’re expanding testing of AI technology in Australia to better protect teens on Instagram: ⏩ Safer Teen Settings – suspected under-18 accounts that list an adult birthday will automatically be placed into Teen Account settings, limiting who can contact them and the content they see. ⏩ Parental Guidance – new in-app prompts will encourage parents to have conversations with their teens about providing the right age and creating safer, age-appropriate experiences. Early results are promising: in the US, 9 out of 10 active teen accounts stayed in protections that reduce unwanted content. This is another step in our commitment to invest in technology, tools, and education that help teens have safer, more positive online experiences. 🔗 Read more: https://lnkd.in/gV2KvSKc #OnlineSafety #Instagram #TeenAccounts

Implementing Age Assurance protections (+ communicating accessibly about them 🤣 ) is an industry- and society-wide challenge. There's no single 'silver bullet' solution, and even if there was, age assurance is a critical mitigation that helps make *most other online child safety protections possible.* So we need multiple layers (I'm partial to the Swiss Cheese model of harm prevention) and not single points of failure. But, as important as having higher confidence in user age is, age assurance solutions must be built with user privacy in mind. This is fundamental to not only to protect adults' privacy and access to information but also protecting children and youth rights to both as well. We shared more today about how we approach balancing these different requirements at TikTok. This includes: 📠 Combining machine learning, human review and proactive user age confirmation (via third party ID checks, facial age estimation, selfie-with parent and more) so we can minimize the data collected while also offering users a variety of options 🌎 Assessing government-led and industry-interoperable Wallet-based solutions and how they could work for our users 🚲 Most significant of all - using age assurance as a tool for age-appropriate design. I've been banging this drum for years *simply understanding user age is not the goal* changing the product experience and policy implementation based on age is! Whether it is restricting access to real-time products like DMs or Livestreaming (as we do at TT, at 16 and 18 respectively), or as part of CSAM detection, higher confidence age information is crucial for a huge variety of core T&S goals. Read more about our approach here: https://lnkd.in/dr-nwfxS

As a parent of teens, I’m particularly excited to share two big updates for teen safety that we announced this week. Firstly, Instagram Teen Accounts will now be guided by PG-13 movie ratings by default – meaning teens will see content on Instagram that’s similar to what they’d see in a PG-13 rated movie. These protections also apply to our AI products, meaning AIs should not give age-inappropriate responses that would feel out of place in a PG-13 movie. We’re also introducing a new, strict option called “Limited Content”, for parents who’d like extra controls. We’ve listened to +150,000 parents globally, gathering +3 million content ratings to refine our age-appropriate guidelines. The updates have started rolling out in the UK, US Australia and Canada – and will come to the EU early next year. And just today, we announced our plans to introduce new supervision tools for parents to empower them to make informed decisions about the AI characters their teens chat with. We’re soon going to be giving parents the option to turn off their teen’s access to one-on-one chats with AI characters entirely or to block specific AI characters and also provide parents with insights into the topics their teens are chatting about with AI characters – and Meta’s AI assistant. These new parental controls are in addition to the protections we already automatically apply to Teen Accounts, and we’ve also started to use AI technology to place suspected teens into these protections, even if they tell us they’re adults. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/efPqY-pw

Great to see Meta taking the lead on keeping users safe. Safety is always contextual, and guardrails should reflect the needs and circumstances of each user. In the same way, red-teaming and guardrail testing should be adaptive and weighted to challenge the specific protections companies have in place. We’ve shared a few more thoughts on this topic: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/drCYz4m9 

The Age of Workarounds: How Kids Bypass Online Restrictions by Adrienne Beranger Children start using tablets as early as age two, and many already know how to navigate search engines and find ways around restrictions. From proxy servers to Google Translate, kids are surprisingly resourceful when it comes to entering spaces they shouldn’t. The best way, in my opinion, to explain these workarounds is through actions that I’ve experienced firsthand: 🥚 Age 6: I joined an 18+ chat room as a guest. It is important to note that, in the early 2000s, email verification and age checks were not mandatory. 🐣 Age 8: I created a fake Gmail account to join a text-based role-playing site. 🐤Age 10: An elementary friend introduced me to the website Clubstruck (an adult social media platform). We thought it was a cool alternative to Myspace, a website that our school server blocked. We chatted with dozens of strangers online, and one of my friends even had an online boyfriend! 🐥Age 12: I used Google Translate to bypass school laptop restrictions and access blocked websites. 🐓 Age 13: My friends and I discovered a proxy server with an obscure name that we used to browse anonymously after the previous workarounds we used were blocked. 🐔 Age 15: I learned how to clear tracked browsing history on my school laptop, bypassing monitoring tools. As a Director of YMCAs/Boys & Girls Clubs and a Trust and Safety professional, I’ve observed how these behaviors change. In many ways, the workarounds my friends and I did as kids still exist, but many things have changed, such as; 🖥️ Kids now generate sexual content in games like Minecraft and Roblox. 🎙️ Use chat and emoting workarounds in video games to communicate privately. 📶 Learn their parents’ passwords to disable parental controls. 🤳 Create Discord servers to connect with strangers online. These workarounds exist wherever there’s a browser. That means they can gain access using phones, consoles, and laptops. Parental controls alone aren’t enough anymore. The other day, I was able to access an adult website; it took me only one minute to enter an 18+ chat room with immediate exposure to pornographic content. The takeaway: Technology can’t replace active parental oversight. Parents need to review search histories, discuss online safety, and monitor usage directly. Teaching children digital responsibility is far more effective than simply handing them devices or buying expensive monitoring tools. Children are resourceful, curious, and persistent online. Understanding their behaviors and actively guiding them is the key to keeping them safe. #TrustAndSafety #ChildSafety #OnlineSafety #DigitalParenting #OnlineModeration

Introducing Teen Accounts on Facebook and Messenger, improving safety for young users in Vietnam Starting this week, Teen Accounts are available on Facebook and Messenger in Vietnam. 🔒 Enhanced Protections for Teens + Restricted audience: Teen Accounts will default to “Friends” for who can see posts, stories, videos, and friend lists. + Restricted messaging: Messages are set at the highest protection level. Only friends or existing contacts can chat with teens. Messages from accounts with only a phone number will appear in the “message requests” folder. + Restricted sensitive content: Meta’s system will automatically remove sensitive or offensive content to ensure an age-appropriate experience. + Interaction limits: Posts in which teens are tagged must be reviewed and confirmed by them before appearing on their profile. + Time limits: Teens will receive reminders to log off after 60 minutes of daily use. + Sleep mode: From 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM, Facebook will automatically mute notifications so teens are not disturbed at night. 97% of users aged 13-15 keep the default protection settings, helping parents feel more confident about their children’s online safety 👨👩👧👦 Parental Supervision: Parents and guardians can use supervision tools to manage safety settings, approve requests to lower protection, and set time limits. They can also view friend lists, Messenger contacts, and blocked accounts. 🚨 Stronger enforcement: In early 2025, about 135,000 Instagram accounts were removed for harassment involving children under 13. Around 500,000 related accounts on Facebook and Instagram were suspended #MetaVietnam with Thao Griffiths Trang Quynh More information in the comment

Instagram is stepping up its efforts to create a safer digital environment for teens by introducing stricter safety measures that now align “Teen Accounts” with PG-13 movie content standards. The Meta-owned platform first launched Teen Accounts last year to reduce young users’ exposure to harmful or inappropriate content. This latest update takes things further. Instagram will now hide or downrank posts that include strong language, risky stunts, or marijuana-related imagery. Additionally, teens will no longer be able to follow or engage with accounts that repeatedly share age-inappropriate material. If they already follow such accounts, they’ll automatically lose access to that content, be unable to send direct messages, and won’t see those users’ comments elsewhere on the app. Instagram is also expanding its list of blocked search terms for minors. Terms like “alcohol” and “gore” will now be restricted, and the platform’s AI chatbot has been reprogrammed to ensure its responses stay within PG-13 boundaries. In Meta’s words, “Just like you might see some suggestive content or hear some strong language in a PG-13 movie, teens may occasionally see something like that on Instagram — but we’re going to keep doing all we can to make those instances as rare as possible.” The move comes as pressure mounts from parents, lawmakers, and child safety advocates who argue that Instagram still hasn’t done enough to protect young users. A recent study revealed that nearly 60% of 13- to 15-year-olds with teen account settings had encountered unsafe content or unwanted messages within the last six months. Meta has disputed those claims, emphasizing the improvements made and the positive feedback received from families and users. These updates are part of a global shift toward stronger online protections for teens. Denmark recently announced plans to ban social media for users under 15, while allowing access only with parental approval for those aged 13 and older. According to Meta, the update directly addresses parents’ concerns, providing clearer controls and improved content filters. All users under 18 will automatically receive the new settings, although they can revert to previous ones with parental consent. Parents will also gain access to a new “Limited Content” feature, enabling them to restrict comments, filter sensitive content, and manage AI chat interactions. The rollout begins today in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, with a global expansion set to follow in the coming months. Stay ahead of the latest social media updates and tech trends. Visit SwiftRadio.com for more insightful stories. #InstagramUpdate #MetaNews #SocialMediaSafety #DigitalWellbeing #TeenSafety #TechNews #OnlineProtection #YouthSafety #SocialMediaRegulation #Innovation #TechnologyTrends #SwiftRadio

Most Instagram teen safety tools failed in an independent audit (64% ineffective). Advocacy groups working with researchers at Northeastern University tested 47 safety tools in Instagram Teen Accounts and found only 8 worked as intended. Many could be bypassed in minutes; others were removed or limited despite public claims. Standouts • Gaps: adults could still reach teen accounts; banned-term filters were easy to dodge; recommendation loops fed harmful content. • What did help: time limits/quiet mode and some parental controls. • Meta response: disagrees with the report; says it’s expanding Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger and adding school escalation tools. Why this matters • Real-world safety depends on design, not just moderation. Cross-checks like this push platforms and regulators toward safer defaults. Timeline • Report released: Sept 24–25, 2025 • Same-day coverage by Reuters, AP, and The Guardian • Meta update on Teen Accounts: Sept 25, 2025 Read more Reuters: https://lnkd.in/ds8azW-4 AP News: https://lnkd.in/dJUCWivt The Guardian: https://lnkd.in/d7VX7JVW Report PDF (Fairplay): https://lnkd.in/d3ZyJQ-s Meta update: https://lnkd.in/dkr-NYaA

From Passive Users to Active Shapers: Why We Must Include Youth & Teens in Today’s Onlife World Discussions Conversations about youth, teens, and technology are often dominated by fear, risk, and control. These concerns are not unfounded, real dangers like online grooming, sextortion, misinformation, and algorithmic manipulation exist. Yet, the reality is far more complex. Youth and teens are not just shaped by technology, they also shape it, remix it, and push its boundaries in ways adults sometimes overlook or just don’t understand. When we treat youth and teens as passive consumers, we not only underestimate them, we do them a disservice. Ignoring their agency is short sighted and unjust. We believe the challenge for parents and caregivers today is shifting from working for children to working with them when it comes to their use of technology, the internet, and social media. To read our full article click this link https://lnkd.in/gzVNWEfz #DigitalLiteracy #onlinesafety #OnlineParenting #parents

Children of all ages use social media, messaging apps, streaming platforms, search engines, AI chatbots and companions, and gaming services - often without having to verify their age. Even pre-teen children watch YouTube, scroll through TikTok, chat on WhatsApp, Viber, or Messenger, search anything on Google, talk to AI chatbots, and play online games - usually without any barriers. It’s simple: they just change their birth year, tick a box, and the platform lets them in. Worse, many platforms - including Google, YouTube, ChatGPT, and messaging services - don’t even ask for a user’s age and can be used without logging in. No questions asked. No proof required. Technology companies are not enforcing age verification or age restrictions strictly. It’s not because they cannot. It’s because laws are weak. And because more users, including underage ones, mean more engagement, more data, and more profit. Why it matters • Exposure to violent, sexual, or manipulative content can harm children’s emotional and mental wellbeing. • Interacting with AI chatbots or strangers online can distort children’s sense of trust and emotional safety. • Unrestricted access to online platforms can normalise risky behaviour and weaken children’s understanding of healthy boundaries. What must be done ✅ Governments must enforce strong, privacy-respecting age-verification systems across all platforms children use, not just social media. ✅ Technology companies must embed safety and privacy by design. Age checks should be built in, not bolted on. ✅ Parents and educators must stay alert and guide children on age-appropriate platforms and behaviour. ✅ Civil society must demand accountability from platforms. Online age-verification systems may require users to provide personal data, such as ID numbers or facial images, which can compromise confidentiality if not securely handled. Collecting and storing such sensitive information increases the risk of misuse, data breaches, or unauthorised access. To address this, platforms should adopt privacy-preserving methods such as anonymous or token-based verification, and data minimisation. Clear policies should also ensure that age data are used solely for verification purposes. A “tick box” is not child protection. It’s a digital illusion. ChildSafeNet Childlight - Global Child Safety Institute Safe Online Tech Coalition WeProtect Global Alliance Sonia Livingstone Sue Atkins Parven Kaur Giselle Fuerte Jonathan Bertrand Afrooz K. Rachel Harvey Julia Fossi Amanda Third Grace Hoyt Dan Mills Kay Chau Katia Potapov Social & Media Matters #ChildSafeNet #AgeVerification #TechResponsibility #SafetyByDesign #ChildOnlineSafety