September 17th 2024.
Instagram is making a big change starting today for its younger users. Teen Accounts, designed for users under 16 years old, will now offer additional protections and give parents more control over their children's social media use. This decision comes after the Australian government announced plans to establish a minimum age for social media. However, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri, these two updates are not related.
During a media conference, Mosseri explained that Teen Accounts will come with built-in safety measures to help young users avoid inappropriate content. Parents will also have the ability to monitor their children's activity on the platform. Mosseri stated, "We've made sure to consider both what parents want and what teenagers want in this update." He acknowledged that there may be some parents who feel the update doesn't go far enough, while some teenagers may feel it goes too far. Instagram's goal is to find a balance between these competing interests.
One of the key features of Teen Accounts is that they will automatically be set to private, with the most restrictive content controls and anti-bullying measures enabled by default. Additionally, these accounts can only be contacted, tagged, or mentioned by accounts that the user follows. Their Explore feeds will also be tailored based on the topics they have chosen. Instagram hopes these changes will address concerns about teenagers spending too much time on social media.
To further promote healthy social media use, Teen Accounts will send notifications to users after 60 minutes of use and have a Sleep Mode feature that mutes notifications and replies to DMs between 10pm and 7am. These features will be automatically enabled and require parental permission to modify through Instagram's parental supervision feature. Mosseri stated, "We want to ensure that Instagram is a safe place for teenagers without requiring parents to constantly monitor their children's activity. However, for parents who do want to be more involved, we offer robust parental controls."
Some of these controls include message monitoring, where parents can see which accounts their teens have messaged in the last seven days, and setting time limits for app use. Parents can also block the app during specific times and monitor the topics their children are viewing on the platform. However, what if a teenager tries to bypass these restrictions? Instagram has a solution in place. Since 2022, users under 18 have been required to verify their age with a video selfie or ID check when changing their birthday. This measure will continue with the new Teen Accounts to prevent underage users from lying about their age. Additionally, Instagram is developing AI tools to identify accounts with adult birthdays that actually belong to teenagers and move them to Teen Accounts. This technology will be tested in the US in early 2025.
The rollout of Teen Accounts will begin today, with all users under 16 creating new Instagram accounts automatically being set up with a Teen Account. Australian users under 16 will be transitioned to Teen Accounts this week, and plans are in place to have all under-16s in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia on Teen Accounts within 60 days. Users in the EU will be moved to Teen Accounts later this year, and the rest of the world will follow in January 2025. Meta, the parent company of Instagram, has also announced plans to implement Teen Accounts on its other social media platforms next year, including Facebook, Threads, and WhatsApp.
Stay updated on all the latest news, celebrities, and sports by following our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm, and your private details will remain private. Instagram is committed to creating a safer environment for its teenage users, and these updates are just the beginning. As Mosseri acknowledged, verifying and understanding age at a large scale is a challenging problem to solve, but they are dedicated to finding effective solutions.
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