{"id":17590,"date":"2022-01-26T17:37:59","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T17:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/us\/social-media-platforms-safety-focus"},"modified":"2022-01-26T17:37:59","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T17:37:59","slug":"social-media-platforms-safety-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/us\/social-media-platforms-safety-focus","title":{"rendered":"What brands need to know about social media\u2019s refocus on child and teen safety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s been a huge movement towards making social media safer for young people. <\/strong>Most of the major platforms took steps to refocus on safety in 2021 and that\u2019s really important if you\u2019re a brand focusing on social media marketing to younger people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve always been interested in this area – I\u2019ve advised the UK government on child safety in the past, and am still involved with various safety bodies – so have a real interest in what the platforms are doing, and why. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As any parent will tell you, it\u2019s hard to stop under-13s accessing social media, and the platforms know this is a problem. TikTok removed more than seven million accounts<\/a> of users under 13 in the first quarter of 2021 alone. As well as restricting access to younger users, the platforms have focused more on how to create safer and more private spaces for teens under 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what brands should know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Privacy is moving to be by default for teens\u2019 accounts<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram led the charge here, making changes that mean when a teen sets up an account, it\u2019s locked by default. All sites allow them to make their accounts public after setup, but they have to make an active choice to make the change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instagram<\/a> has made this change for anyone under 16 (or 18 in some countries). TikTok<\/a> has not only made accounts private by default for users under 16 – it’s turned direct messages off by default too.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously, research by Instagram found that 8 out of 10 “young people” opted to make their accounts private<\/a> when prompted during setup. So, it will be interesting to see how many teens decide proactively to make their accounts public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teens have more control over who can view their content<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Platforms like Google and TikTok are making changes to give users more control over who sees their content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

YouTube<\/a> creators between 13 and 17 are set to have their content seen only by a small group of users by default – again, unless the creator changes the setting to make it public. Google<\/a> also announced changes that allow users who are under 18 (or their parents) to have their images removed from Google search. TikTok<\/a> now allows under 16s to select who can view their videos (friends, followers or just themselves) before posting them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These changes are fantastic for teens who want to use social apps to chat and share social media content with friends, rather than creating trending posts and worrying about dealing with trolls or bullies. It\u2019s not a silver bullet, but it\u2019s a good start. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media platforms are focusing on digital wellness by prompting teens to use their apps less<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It seems strange that social apps – which, let’s be honest, do everything they can to keep people engaged on their platforms – are now actively looking for ways to reduce the time people use their apps, but they are (at least for teen users). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, Instagram<\/a> announced its ‘take a break’ feature, which reminds teens to take some time away from the app. YouTube<\/a> made \u2018break and bedtime\u2019 reminders a default feature for teens between the ages of 13 and 17, with autoplay turned off by default for teens (I’m sure many of us have been sucked into a YouTube autoplay wormhole!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact of social media on mental health<\/a> was well documented in reports that Instagram knew about the negative effects<\/a> its app could have on teenagers, so these changes have to be a move in the right direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restricting advertising to children and teens<\/strong> on social media platforms<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Back in July, Facebook<\/a> (now Meta) announced that it would change how it dealt with advertising to under 18s. Advertisers can still target ads to teens based on age, gender and location (across Facebook, Messenger and Instagram), but ads will stop using teens’ activity on other sites to create targeted ads.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google’s<\/a> taking things a step further, blocking targeting ads based on \u2018age, gender or interests\u2019 to anyone under 18. It also said that it would be removing \u2018overly commercial content\u2019 from YouTube Kids<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating a safer space by removing unwanted adult content and contacts<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Early in 2021, Instagram<\/a> started rolling out measures to protect under-18s from adults on the app. It prevents adults from sending direct messages to teenagers who don\u2019t follow them, and alerts teens when an adult they\u2019ve been chatting with has a pattern of contacting other under-18s (allowing them to restrict the person\u2019s access to their account).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google<\/a> also introduced a range of additional safety measures, including turning SafeSearch on by default for teens under 18 who set up new accounts and enable it for existing users under 18 (under 13s already had SafeSearch enabled).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this will solve all the problems that young people can face on social media. But – after many years of campaigning for better safety – I\u2019m delighted that safety is part of the conversation and that social media platforms are taking it seriously. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for brands, it\u2019s important to know that the platform you use for social media marketing or advertising is behaving in a way that is responsible and ethical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been a huge movement towards making social media safer for young people. Most of the major platforms took steps to refocus on safety in 2021 and that\u2019s really important if you\u2019re a brand focusing on social media marketing to younger people.  I\u2019ve always been interested in this area – I\u2019ve advised the UK government…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":17591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[684],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat brands need to know about social media\u2019s refocus on child and teen safety - The Social Element USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Social media platforms are making efforts to ensure their content is safer for young people.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/us\/social-media-platforms-safety-focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What brands need to know about social media\u2019s refocus on child and teen safety - 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