Facebook has announced a new safety feature for Facebook Messenger that will help millions of people avoid potentially harmful interactions and possible scams without compromising their privacy.
The Facebook Messenger safety feature is simply notices that will pop up in a chat and provide tips to help people spot suspicious activity and take action to block or ignore someone when something doesn’t seem right.
According to Facebook, the feature was developed with machine learning that looks at behavioral signals like an adult sending a large amount of friend or message requests to people under 18. This ensures that the new features will be available and effective when Messenger is end-to-end encrypted.
“These features show a great integration of the technical tools that will help curb bad behavior on the platform, while also reminding people of their own control over their account,” said Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute . “It’s important to use language that empowers people to make wise decisions and think more critically about who they’re interacting with online. We’re especially glad to see this reflected in the thoughtful approach around safety considerations for younger users.
Too often people interact with someone online they think they know or trust, when it’s really a scammer or imposter. These fake accounts can be hard to identify at first and the results can be costly. Going forward, the new Messenger safety notices will help educate people on ways to spot such scams or imposters and help them take action to prevent a costly interaction.
The new Messenger feature also educates people under the age of 18 to be cautious when interacting with an adult they may not know and empowers them to take action before responding to a message. This will limit interactions between adults and younger users who aren’t already connected on the platform.
In summary, the Facebook Messenger safety notices will help people avoid potentially harmful interactions and possible scams while empowering them with the information and controls needed to keep their chats private, safe and secure.
Facebook started rolling this feature out on Android in March, meanwhile, iOS functionality is set to arrive some time next week.
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