In an effort to combat harassment on its platform, Instagram announced Thursday that it is expanding the scope of its “Limits” tool specifically for teens that would allow them to limit unwanted interactions with people. Once enabled, teens will only be able to see comments, messages, story replies, tags, and mentions from their “Close Friends” group, and interactions from other accounts will be muted.
The company debuted the Limits feature as a trial in 2021 after England footballers Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho were harassed online following England’s loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 finals. Anyone can use Limits at the moment, though it only allows you to limit interactions with people you follow, other than longtime followers.
The feature is now tuned for teens with the “Close Friends” setting by default, and Instagram says it’s specifically meant to protect people from bullying and harassment. Accounts that aren’t part of a person’s “Close Friends” group can still interact with them, but their activity won’t appear in the feed.
Alternatively, teens can limit interactions with recent followers — accounts that started following them in the past week or accounts they don’t follow.
In addition, the company is adding new functionality to the “Restrict” feature that allows you to limit interactions from specific accounts without blocking them. Instagram will hide all comments from restricted accounts and won’t be able to tag or report you.
Earlier this year, Meta put in place new restrictions that prevent anyone over 18 from messaging teenagers who don’t follow them. In April, the company introduced a feature that would blur the nudity in Instagram DMs for teens.
This is a “good faith” move by Meta, which faces scrutiny for teen safety in many areas. Last October, more than 40 US states sued Meta, alleging that its product design affects children’s mental health. Earlier this month, the European Union launched an investigation against Facebook and Instagram over their addictive design and negative impact on the mental health of minors.
