Instagram Tightens Privacy: The social media giant now has decided that from today, the platform will automatically sign up new and existing users under 18 years into a more secure account type called “Teen Account.” This change comes with tighter restrictions and fewer privacy features to give young users a more secure online presence.
Instagram’s Bold Move for Teen Safety
To respond to growing concerns about the online safety of minors, Meta-owned Instagram is unveiling Teen Accounts. This development directly reaches millions of teen users by forcing certain privacy settings, including limited direct messages and a new feature known as Sleep Mode that it introduced to silence messages at night.
Accounts for teen users will now be set to private by default. This means only the approved follower is allowed to see their posts, comments, and stories. This layer of protection against unwanted interactions is added for teen users who are under 16 years old. Direct message will no longer allow messages to be sent by strangers to teens.
But these aren’t the only new features for teens on Instagram. Rather, the company is looking to help teens with being better at time management online by introducing Sleep Mode. So far, between the hours of 10 PM and 7 AM, the app silences notifications so it keeps younger users occupied with something else and asleep for the proper amount of time at night.
Sleep Mode: A new feature for teens on Instagram, it silences late-night notifications so that people can focus on sleeping rather than stalking.
Age-based Recommendations
Another significant impact the change has is on the nature of recommended content for teens on Instagram. Moving forward from today, teen users can select topics of interest to them-including topics such as sports, animals, or travel-and Instagram would show a higher percentage of content related to these themes. Consequently, only age-appropriate material will be visible on feeds, reels, and the Explore page.
Instagram is also expanding on its work to reduce teens’ exposure to damaging content. It’s already limiting the kinds of content teens can see on Reels and Explore, but this update takes those kinds of controls and applies them much more tightly, so teens are only seeing content that’s good for them to see based on their interests and maturity level. Read more about how Instagram works with content guidelines.
Parental Controls Get a Boost
Meta is not snubbing teens but also making sure parents are in more control. Instead, on Instagram, parental monitoring tools will now permit moms to view their child’s messaging history for the past seven days with their messages remaining private. Parents can also see which topics the teen is frequently interacting with to get a better idea of what’s going on.
There is still flexibility to adjust some privacy settings for teenagers older than 16 years, but younger users need parental permission to make significant changes, such as making their account public. That means parents must set up Instagram’s supervisory tools, giving them the ability to permit or deny requests for changes.
Image: Instagram
Parental Controls: Instagram allows parents control of the teen’s activities while at the same time respecting privacy. Learn how Instagram designs its supervision of teens.
Going Global
The Teen Account feature will first be rolled out in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia and will be rolled out across all platforms in the European Union by the end of the year. Meta will also look to introduce its end-to-end encryption and safety functions across all of its platforms by 2025, upholding its advocacy for online safety for younger users.
Global Rollout: Instagram is rolling out teen accounts in many countries. More on Meta’s future plans here.
Challenges and Future Safeguards
Although all these precautions are in place, Meta still knows it will be hard to prove the age of users. Teenagers have been known to lie about their ages to allow themselves into a site. To circumvent this, Instagram will introduce new age verification. Techniques of making this happen include video selfie, uploading an ID, or having other users vouch for the age.
Meta also makes use of AI to protect against underage users. For instance, when someone puts down 18 years old, but friends write “Happy 14th Birthday”, that triggers something and the person takes an action; this multi-layered system ensures teens stay protected even if trying to go round the system.
Instagram has developed age verification techniques using AI and facial recognition capabilities that have become significantly advanced for teens seeking to alter their age. Read more about the use of AI in age verification on Instagram.
The Bigger Picture: Safety of Children Online
Instagram rolls out new protections as lawmakers and advocacy groups keep up the pressure on social media companies to get their houses in order for kids. The outfit has not had a moment’s peace since a leaked trove of internal Meta documents laid bare, to say the least, concerning details of the psychological effects of social media on teenagers last year.
Within recent weeks, almost 40 US states have backed a measure that would mandate warning labels on social media, and landmark legislation focused on online child safety cleared the US Senate in July. The legislation measures serve as reminders of the increasing need for platforms, including Instagram, to upgrade and enhance protections for younger users. Learn more about child safety legislation.
Instagram has been proactive in such matters, introducing features such as parental controls and signing on with partners focused on understanding the platform’s impact on the mental health of teens. These steps will not be enough, however, so their success will be a matter of how well the company executes and enforces them over time.
Conclusion: A Safer Instagram for Teens
With Teen Accounts, Instagram has made a big stride in creating a safer, more secure online space for teens. Private accounts, with the restriction of sending and receiving messages via DMs, and age-sensitive content, come hand in hand with expanded parental controls for an all-rounded approach for child safety.
Yet questions linger about enforcement and whether it is possible to really safeguard teens against problematic content and interactions. For now, though, Instagram’s efforts shine brightly in this difficult battle to ensure social media is safe for everyone, especially teens.
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