Tech giant Meta has just confirmed that an alert was sent out to all pages on Facebook that their page was not aimed at kids under 13.
Facebook’s parent firm acknowledged that this was an error in the form of a bug and now it has been fixed. The matter was concerning for many page managers who reviewed the alert and became worried. We saw a user Wocky-Slush-Jo-Mama on Reddit be one of the first few who shared the picture of the alert which was visible on a page.
Image: u/Wocky-Slush-Jo-Mama
The image showed Meta looking to clarify if the page was directed to kids or not. They asked them and many others to confirm by September 30 that it was not meant for those below the 13-year age bracket. When you clicked on that alert, it brought forward more information about this.
The entire process seemed like it was created to attain more explicit agreements from pages to ensure it isn’t directed toward youngsters. This would give the social media giant the liberty to remove any page that it felt was aimed to target minors. Since page owners were sent reminders and they would directly need to agree, it did appear more like enforcement to ensure kids remain safe on Meta’s apps.
Meta confirmed that they were aware of the bug and therefore fixed it. They’re now experimenting with alerts to make sure the pages are in line with the Terms of Use that stop people under the age of 13 from using this platform. In such a case, the alerts were sent by error, it added.
Therefore, it was a false alarm and there’s no reason to get worried right now. Meta says users will no longer be seeing this on the app but if they are, they shouldn’t be worried. From what we can see, it does appear the tech giant might be looking to confirm such facts in the future.
This would mean that if your content did end up targeting minors, they might need to rethink the whole approach. It’s already a part of Meta’s policies that minors shouldn’t be on the app and if they are, pages cannot produce content that targets them.
Read next: New Study Shows AI Cannot Be Trusted for News as It Lacks Accuracy
Facebook’s parent firm acknowledged that this was an error in the form of a bug and now it has been fixed. The matter was concerning for many page managers who reviewed the alert and became worried. We saw a user Wocky-Slush-Jo-Mama on Reddit be one of the first few who shared the picture of the alert which was visible on a page.
The image showed Meta looking to clarify if the page was directed to kids or not. They asked them and many others to confirm by September 30 that it was not meant for those below the 13-year age bracket. When you clicked on that alert, it brought forward more information about this.
The entire process seemed like it was created to attain more explicit agreements from pages to ensure it isn’t directed toward youngsters. This would give the social media giant the liberty to remove any page that it felt was aimed to target minors. Since page owners were sent reminders and they would directly need to agree, it did appear more like enforcement to ensure kids remain safe on Meta’s apps.
Meta confirmed that they were aware of the bug and therefore fixed it. They’re now experimenting with alerts to make sure the pages are in line with the Terms of Use that stop people under the age of 13 from using this platform. In such a case, the alerts were sent by error, it added.
Therefore, it was a false alarm and there’s no reason to get worried right now. Meta says users will no longer be seeing this on the app but if they are, they shouldn’t be worried. From what we can see, it does appear the tech giant might be looking to confirm such facts in the future.
This would mean that if your content did end up targeting minors, they might need to rethink the whole approach. It’s already a part of Meta’s policies that minors shouldn’t be on the app and if they are, pages cannot produce content that targets them.
Read next: New Study Shows AI Cannot Be Trusted for News as It Lacks Accuracy
