Meta announced on Thursday, August 3, the official launch of a new feature aimed at enhancing user safety by mitigating unwanted images and videos in direct messages (DMs) on Instagram.

The rollout follows a successful testing period that commenced over a month ago.

With this feature, unless a user is following the recipient, the user can now only send one text-only DM before the recipient accepts the ‘request to chat’, instead of an unlimited stream of messages like before.

Serena, a young woman who regularly uses Instagram, shared with Our Today her thoughts on the new feature: ” I think its a good idea, because I’ve personally had strange men send me unwarranted pictures and I especially like the idea of protecting kids and I hope it actually works.”

The main objective behind implementing the feature is to prevent individuals from receiving unsolicited and unwanted content from unknown users. By curbing the ability to send repeated messages, Instagram aims to eliminate persistent messaging and the transmission of explicit materials, which has been a pressing concern, particularly for women and teenagers who often encounter unsolicited nudes in their DMs.

In a message on their home website, Meta said: “We want to protect people from unwanted interactions in Instagram DMs, and these protections are especially important when it comes to teens. We already show ‘Safety Notices’ when adults who have shown potentially suspicious behaviour message teens, and we restrict people over 19 years old from sending private messages to teens who don’t follow them.”