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    Instagram will prevent adults from messaging teenagers who don’t follow them! (UPDATED)

    In an effort to make its platform safer for teenagers, Instagram today announced new policies to restrict direct messaging between teens and adults they don’t follow. In other words, adults will no longer be able to send messages to Instagram users who are underage and don’t follow them.

    STORY HIGHLIGHTS:

    • Restricting DMs between teens and adults.
    • New safety notices about messaging adults.
    • Encouraging teens to set their account to private.

    Protecting teens from unwanted contact from adults

    If the user is under 18 and follows an adult, Instagram will allow DMs between them. Basically, this new feature requires that a teen rather than an adult establishes the connection, giving them more control over their Isntgarm experience.

    “For example, when an adult tries to message a teen who doesn’t follow them, they receive a notification that DM’ing them isn’t an option,” according to a blog post on the Instagram website.

    Additionally, Instagram will be introducing new features in the coming weeks to make it more difficult for adults “who have been exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior” to interact with teens on the platform.

    This may include things like restricting these adults from seeing teen accounts in ‘Suggested Users’, preventing them from discovering teen content in Reels or Explore, and automatically hiding their comments on public posts by teens.

    Instagram is also encouraging young people to make their accounts private. Now when someone under 18 signs up for an Instagram account, they can immediately choose whether to make their account public or private.

    “Our aim is to encourage young people to opt for a private account by equipping them with information on what the different settings mean,” the company notes.

    New safety notices

    On top of that, new safety notices will warn teenagers to be careful about messaging adults they’re already connected to. This feature will start rolling out in some countries later this month.

    Safety notices in DMs will notify young people when an adult who has been exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior is interacting with them in DMs. For example, if an adult is sending a large amount of friend or message requests to people under 18, we’ll use this tool to alert the recipients within their DMs and give them an option to end the conversation, or block, report, or restrict the adult.

    And to stop people from lying about their age (Instagram requires everyone to be at least 13 to use the service), the company has developed new artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to predict peoples’ ages and apply the aforementioned features.


    Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2021/03/16/instagram-restrict-dm-teens-adults/

  • Wink Sends Demand to Users: Pay $5 a Month or We’ll Disable Your Smart Home Hub.

    Ransomware?  We think so!!!

    The Wink Hub which was sold at stores like Lowes was never as good as the competitors.  I would rank the ISY from Universal-Devices as the best SmartHome hub on the market followed by the SmartThings hub by Samsung.  Sorry Apple- I can’t even list HomeKit in the top 10.  I bought a Wink Hub years ago to control a smart bank that Santa brought my kids that only worked with Wink.  I also purchased a smart egg tray (no laughing) that would not only tell you when you were out of eggs but which ones were the oldest to be sure they were used first.   Well both those products no longer function so my hub is useless.

    Wink claimed on the box there would be no fees.   Now, they are blackmailing their customers with a notice to pay up by July 27th or we will cut off your service.   The company claims in the small print, hidden so no one would ever read it, “Wink reserves the right to interrupt the Services with or without prior notice for any reason or no reason” and that Wink has the right “to change and/or eliminate any aspect(s) of the Services as it sees fit in its sole discretion.”   We, along with many others, feel that what they are doing is way beyond the scope of changing their services. This is basically a Ransomware for the people who bought their products.

    Pay $5 a month ransom or we will stop your product we promised no hidden costs from working.

    We can’t tell you what to do, but I can tell you my Wink Hub went into the trash a week ago and I will invest my money into the ISY from Universal-Devices .   In addition to Insteon, Z-Wave, and Zigsbee support, they have been hard at work creating links (over 80 right now) to other SmartHome products like swimming pools, smart irrigation valves, and Roomba vacuums to their system,  More devices seem to pop up every week.   Invest your money in something that works and has potential to grow and not a system that has already reached its limits.