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Facebook is announcing a new setting that allows you to limit the amount of potentially sensitive content displayed in your Instagram Explorer tab. According to Facebook, the new sensitive content control setting will allow you to “see more or less certain types of sensitive content”, which can be “disturbing or offensive.” The amount of content that the three levels “Allow”, “Limit (default)” and “Limit more” will or will not show is quite vague, and we have contacted Facebook for clarification.
On the Sensitive Content Control support page, Instagram states that sensitive content may include sexually suggestive or violent posts, as well as posts promoting things like tobacco or the use of pharmaceuticals. Facebook makes it clear that this setting is based on its recommendation guidelines, which govern what can appear on the Explore page, not its community guidelines.
Posts that categorically violate Facebook’s rules will always be removed, the Sensitive Content Control simply gives users more options on how much exposure to content that might be disturbing in the Explore tab. For example, Facebook says that content showing a fight or people wearing transparent clothing can be considered “sensitive” and therefore should not appear on the Explore page for people with sensitive content limits. However, violence or nudity “graphics” would be removed from the site and would not appear even to those with sensitive content control set to “Allow”.
Facebook did not respond to a request for comment on the difference between the setting and the amount of potentially sensitive content presented to a user. The descriptions shown in the screenshot of Facebook’s feature, seen at the top of this article, are a bit vague, however – the Limit Even More setting doesn’t say you won’t see sensitive content, just that you ” can “see fewer messages that” might “be disturbing.
According to Facebook, the setting will be accessible by going to your profile and then tapping Settings> Account> Sensitive content control. The feature does not appear to have been rolled out to all users yet: the option has not appeared for me or a few of my colleagues. Facebook says the setting to allow sensitive content may not be available to people under the age of 18.
This announcement comes at a time when many social networks, especially photo and video sharing platforms, are trying to figure out how to deal with content that may disturb some users but engage for others. Last year, TikTok introduced warning screens for potentially graphic videos, and Pinterest recently announced a ban on weight loss ads. Instagram itself tries to blur images that could be potentially triggering for people struggling with eating disorders and provides resources for users looking for content related to eating disorders. Today’s announcement doesn’t seem to signal a drastic change for the Explore page, but it should give people a little more control over what they see there.
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