A cross-section of some of the attendees and the Meta team.November 26, 2024 – Lagos, Nigeria: Meta recently hosted its first Youth Summit in Lagos, Nigeria, bringing together over 200 young professionals, students, recent graduates, creatives, tech enthusiasts and aspiring entrepreneurs. Themed ‘Empowering Youth Through Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship’, the summit included a series of thought-provoking panel discussions, a mentoring session and an interactive workshop designed to equip young Nigerians with the skills, insights and networks needed to thrive in today’s tech-driven world. Commenting about the event, Phil Oduor, Head of Policy Programs, Sub-Saharan Africa said, “At Meta, we believe that today’s youth are tomorrow’s change-makers. Through initiatives like the Youth Summit, we aim to foster innovation, promote digital literacy and empower young Nigerians with the tools and opportunities to realise their potential and contribute to Nigeria’s growing digital economy.”Delivering the keynote address, Femi Aluko, CEO/Co-Founder, Chowdeck, shared his journey of breaking barriers to achieve success in tech. He encouraged attendees to embrace the limitless opportunities within today’s technology ecosystem. A panel discussion, led by Chinny Francis, Public Policy Manager at Meta, featured panellists Nifemi Akinwamide, Head of Operations, Alt School; Adaora Mbelu, Co-Founder of Lumination Global and Obaloluwa Adeagbo, Marketing Lead at Talstack. They shared valuable insights about the future of work, emphasising the importance of storytelling to build a personal brand, practicing self-awareness, developing soft skills, lifelong learning and honing problem-solving skills to thrive in a digitally transformed world.Francis Sani, Technical Adviser for Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Capital at the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy, spoke at the event. He highlighted the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) program, emphasising that the program aims to build Nigeria’s technical talent backbone to drive the digital economy and position Nigeria as a net talent exporter. He encouraged youth to take advantage of this opportunity.Another panel of industry experts took the stage during the ‘Lunch and Learn: Navigating Entrepreneurship in a Rapidly Changing Landscape’ session, moderated by Sade Dada, Head of Public Policy for Anglophone West Africa at Meta. Seye Bandele, CEO of PaidHR and Damilola Teidi-Ayoola, Head of Platform and Networks at Ventures Platform Fund, shared their invaluable insights. Seye highlighted the importance of grit, curiosity and candour, while Damilola reinforced the need to understand one’s target audience, deliver value through their business and embrace data-driven decision-making in the dynamic entrepreneurial landscape. The event also featured inspiring conversations with leading figures in the creative industry. Miss Techy, an award winning tech content creator and Salem King, a creator, storyteller, author and speaker, shared their experiences and advice on achieving long-term success. Attendees also benefited from an interactive workshop and a mentoring session, where industry experts shared practical advice and strategies for entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts.Meta’s Youth Summit 2024 highlights a commitment to driving positive change, championing youth empowerment and advancing economic opportunities in Nigeria. Through investments in key areas—such as the creative industry, digital literacy, economic impact and youth job training—Meta is dedicated to empowering young Nigerians to thrive in today’s tech-driven world.A group of people posing for a photoDescription automatically generatedCross-section of some of the attendees at the Meta Youth Summit 2024 in LagosA group of people standing on a stageDescription automatically generatedL-R: Chinny Francis, Public Policy Manager, Meta; Nifemi Akinwamide, Head of Operations, Alt School; Adaora Mbelu, Co-Founder of Lumination Global and Obaloluwa Adeagbo, Marketing Lead at Talstack.A group of people sitting on a stageDescription automatically generatedL-R: Sade Dada, Head of Public Policy, Anglophone West Africa, Meta; Damilola Teidi-Ayoola, Head of Platform and Networks, Ventures Platform Fund, and Seye Bandele, Chief Executive Officer, PaidHR during the Lunch and Learn: Navigating Entrepreneurship in a Rapidly Changing Landscape panel session.A person and person standing on a stageDescription automatically generatedSalem King, a creator, storyteller, author and speaker and Miss Techy, an award winning tech content creator A group of people sitting at tablesDescription automatically generatedDuring a mentoring session workshopA person standing on a stageDescription automatically generatedFemi Aluko, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Chowdeck.A person standing at a podiumDescription automatically generatedFrancis Sani, Technical Adviser to the minister of communications and digital economy of Nigeria

Conversations on WhatsApp should always feel fun and expressive and today, we’re rolling out filters and backgrounds to make your video calls even more engaging. With these new effects, you can now change your background or add a filter during a video call for a more personal touch.

Filters are designed to help you create a more playful atmosphere, whether that’s adding a splash of color or creating a more artistic feel for your video. With backgrounds, you can keep your surroundings private and transport yourself to a cozy coffee shop or comfortable living room for a more clean and polished look.

With 10 filters and 10 backgrounds to choose from, you can select and mix a wide range of options to create a unique look. Filter options include Warm, Cool, Black & White, Light leak, Dreamy, Prism light, Fisheye, Vintage TV, Frosted glass and Duo tone. Background options include Blur, Living room, Office, Cafe, Pebbles, Foodie, Smoosh, Beach, Sunset, Celebration and Forest.

We’re also adding Touch up and Low Light options that can help you feel more confident and comfortable by naturally enhancing the look and brightness of your environment, making your video calls more vibrant and enjoyable.

To access these during a 1:1 or group video call, select the effects icons on top right of the screen to see the selection of filters and backgrounds and choose the one that suits your mood.

These effects will be available to everyone in the coming weeks.

Takeaways

• We’re introducing Instagram Teen Accounts to automatically place teens in built-in protections and reassure parents that teens are having safe experiences. 
• Teen Accounts will limit who can contact teens and the content they see, and help ensure their time is well spent.
• Teens under 16 will need a parent’s permission to change any of the built-in protections to be less strict within Teen Accounts.

Today, we’re introducing Instagram Teen Accounts, a new experience for teens, guided by parents. Teen Accounts have built-in protections which limit who can contact them and the content they see, and also provide new ways for teens to explore their interests. We’ll automatically place teens into Teen Accounts, and teens under 16 will need a parent’s permission to change any of these settings to be less strict. 

[FPO: Follow link to see full video]

Reimagining teens’ experiences on Instagram

We know parents want to feel confident that their teens can use social media to connect with their friends and explore their interests, without having to worry about unsafe or inappropriate experiences. We understand parents’ concerns, and that’s why we’re reimagining our apps for teens with new Teen Accounts. This new experience is designed to better support parents, and give them peace of mind that their teens are safe with the right protections in place.

Built-in protections to address parents’ top concerns

We developed Teen Accounts with parents and teens in mind. The new Teen Account protections are designed to address parents’ biggest concerns, including who their teens are talking to online, the content they’re seeing and whether their time is being well spent. These protections are turned on automatically, and parents decide if teens under 16 can change any of these settings to be less strict:

• Private accounts: With default private accounts, teens need to accept new followers and people who don’t follow them can’t see their content or interact with them. 
• Messaging restrictions: Teens will be placed in the strictest messaging settings, so they can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to. 
• Sensitive content restrictions: Teens will automatically be placed into the most restrictive  setting of our sensitive content control, which limits the type of sensitive content (such as content that shows people fighting or promotes cosmetic procedures) teens see in places like Explore and Reels. 
• Limited interactions: Teens can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow. We’ll also automatically turn on the most restrictive version of our anti-bullying feature, Hidden Words, so that offensive words and phrases will be filtered out of teens’ comments and DM requests. 
• Time limit reminders: Teens will get notifications telling them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day. 
• Sleep mode enabled: Sleep mode will be turned on between 10 PM and 7 AM, which will mute notifications overnight and send auto-replies to DMs. 

How to approve changes to a teen’s settings

Teens under 16 will need their parent’s permission to use less protective settings. To get permission, teens will need to set up parental supervision on Instagram. If parents want more oversight over their older teen’s (16+) experiences, they simply have to turn on parental supervision. Then, they can approve any changes to these settings, irrespective of their teen’s age.

Once supervision is established, parents can approve and deny their teens’ requests to change settings or allow teens to manage their settings themselves. Soon, parents will also be able to change these settings directly to be more protective. Learn more about how to manage Teen Accounts. 

“Instagram Teen Accounts reflect the importance of tailoring teens’ online experiences to their developmental stages, and implementing appropriate protections. Younger adolescents are more vulnerable as their skills are still emerging and require additional safeguards and protection. Overall, the settings are age-specific, with younger and older teens being offered different protections.”  – Rachel Rodgers, PHd Associate Professor of Applied Psychology, Northeastern University

More ways for parents to get involved, if they want 

While Teen Accounts put new protections in place automatically, many parents want to be even more involved in their teen’s experiences, so we’re also adding to our supervision feature. Updates include ways to:

• Get insights into who their teens are chatting with: While parents can’t read their teen’s messages, now they will be able to see who their teen has messaged in the past seven days.
• Set total daily time limits for teens’ Instagram usage: Parents can decide how much time their teen can spend on Instagram each day. Once a teen hits that limit, they’ll no longer be able to access the app. 
• Block teens from using Instagram for specific time periods: Parents can choose to block their teens from using Instagram at night, or specific time periods, with one easy button.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health supports efforts to improve the online health and safety of young people, including changes that reflect the varying developmental needs of younger and older adolescents. It’s important that safety and privacy protections are the default settings, both to improve teens’ online experience and to reduce some of the burden that has fallen to parents. We look forward to hearing from teens about their experience of these new Teen Accounts and associated features and settings.” – Dr. Megan Moreno, co-medical director of the SAMHSA-funded AAP Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health

How we’re enforcing Teen Accounts

Teens may lie about their age and that’s why we’re requiring them to verify their age in more places, like if they attempt to use a new account with an adult birthday. We’re also building technology to proactively find accounts belonging to teens, even if the account lists an adult birthday. This technology will allow us to proactively find these teens and place them in the same protections offered by Teen Account settings. We’ll start testing this change in the US early next year. You can read more about those details here.  

Helping ensure teens see age-appropriate content 

We recognize parents are concerned that their teens might see mature or inappropriate content online, which is why we have stricter rules around the kinds of content teens see on our apps. We remove content that breaks our rules and avoid recommending potentially sensitive content – such as sexually suggestive content or content discussing suicide or self-harm. With Instagram Teen Accounts, teens will be placed into the strictest setting of our sensitive content control, so they’re even less likely to be recommended sensitive content, and in many cases we hide this content altogether from teens, even if it’s shared by someone they follow.

When to expect these changes

Today, we’ll start placing teens who sign up for Instagram into Teen Accounts, and we’ll notify teens already using Instagram about these changes so we can begin moving them into Teen Accounts next week. 

We plan to place teens into Teen Accounts within 60 days in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, and to start placing them in Teen Accounts in the European Union later this year. Teens around the world will start to get Teen Accounts in January. We’ll also bring Teen Accounts to other Meta platforms next year. These are big updates that will change the Instagram experience for millions of teens, and we need to make sure they work correctly. 

“These updates to Instagram’s Teen Accounts offer a balanced approach, empowering parents with essential oversight while respecting teens’ right to participate and explore. In an ever-evolving online world, this update ensures that young people can engage meaningfully and safely, fostering positive connections while still providing the protection they need.” – Lucy Thomas OAM, CEO & Co-Founder, Project Rockit