Meta will hide suicide and eating disorder content from teens as government pressure mounts

Meta is restricting teens from viewing content that deals with topics like suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders, the company announced today. The content, which Meta says may not be “age appropriate” for young people, will not be visible even if it’s shared by someone a teen follows.

If a teen searches for this type of content on Facebook and Instagram, they’ll instead be directed toward “expert resources for help” like the National Alliance on Mental Illness, according to Meta. Teen users also may not know if content in these categories is shared and that they can’t see it. This change is rolling out to users under 18 over the coming months.

In addition to hiding content in sensitive categories, teen accounts will also be defaulted to restrictive filtering settings that tweak what kind of content on Facebook and Instagram they see. This change affects recommended posts in Search and Explore that could be “sensitive” or “low quality,” and Meta will automatically set all teen accounts to the most stringent settings, though these settings can be changed by users.