Instagram makes all teen accounts private in push for child safety [VIDEO]

Social media platform Instagram is making teen accounts private by default as it tries to make the platform safer for children.

Meta said children aged 13 to 15 will now need a parent’s approval to change the restricted settings, dubbed “Teen Accounts,” which filter out offensive words and limit who can contact them.

The platform requires people to be at least 13 years old to sign up for Instagram. They can confirm their age by providing their birthday, photo identification, and or submitting a video selfie.

The new protocols come after years of discourse regarding the effect of social media use on young people, with pundits and politicians arguing that social media and smartphones are to blame for a decline in teenagers’ well-being.

Watch Adam Mosseri speaking about safety for teens on Instagram

Protections of teens

Teen Accounts have built-in protections which limit who can contact them and the content they see, and also provide new ways for teens to explore their interests.

“We know parents want to feel confident that their teens can use social media to connect with their friends and explore their interests, without having to worry about unsafe or inappropriate experiences, Meta said.

“We understand parents’ concerns, and that’s why we’re reimagining our apps for teens with new Teen Accounts. This new experience is designed to better support parents, and give them peace of mind that their teens are safe with the right protections in place.”

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Addressing parents’ concerns

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri emphasised the change is aimed at giving parents “peace of mind”. It doesn’t require explicit intervention from parents for these changes to occur.

“I’m a dad, and this is a significant change to Instagram and one that I’m personally very proud of,” noted Mosseri.

Meta said it developed Teen Accounts with parents and teens in mind.

“The new Teen Account protections are designed to address parents’ concerns, including who their teens are talking to online, the content they’re seeing and whether their time is being well spent.

“These protections are turned on automatically, and parents decide if teens under 16 can change any of these settings to be less strict,” Meta said.

Private accounts

Under the private account setting, teens will need to accept new followers and only people whom they accept as followers can see their content and interact with them.

In addition, teen users will now automatically only be able to message with people they follow, or are already connected to, and parents will have a new tool in their settings that allows them to see with whom their teen has recently been messaging.

Supervision feature

Meta said while Teen Accounts put new protections in place automatically, many parents want to be even more involved in their teen’s experiences. “We’re also adding to our supervision feature,” Meta said.

To get permission, teens will need to set up parental supervision on Instagram. If parents want more oversight over their older teen’s (16+) experiences, they simply have to turn on parental supervision. Then, they can approve any changes to these settings, irrespective of their teen’s age.

Once supervision is established, parents can approve and deny their teens’ requests to change settings or allow teens to manage their settings themselves. Soon, parents will also be able to change these settings directly to be more protective.

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