Instagram parent company Meta announced on Tuesday, September 17, that it has launched a teen account for the popular app. The goal, of course, is to protect young children from overuse and bullying on the photo-sharing app, while the company is giving parents more control over how their kids interact on Instagram.
Instagram now divides teens into two camps: 13-15 year olds and 16 and 17 year olds. The former has different, more stringent protections than the latter, but the biggest change coming Tuesday is that all teenagers — starting in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia — will automatically be put into a teen account… even if they have one Existing account. If the teen already has a supervised account, their parents will be notified of the request and can also approve or deny the request.
As part of the changes, parents will now be able to see who their children have messaged in the past seven days, but out of respect for privacy, they will not be able to read the messages themselves. Teenagers will be able to choose from 30 topics of interest that they want to see more of on the platform, showing teens more of the content they are interested in and less of the content they are not interested in. There will also be the inevitable sleep mode and a reminder to put away the app after a while.
As Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart, a pediatric psychologist and mother of two, says, these accounts “give them the freedom to connect with friends and explore, but with added protection. Between freedom and boundaries That balance is exactly what teenagers need, especially now that we’re no longer watching them 24/7.
It’s all about educating teenagers about the realities of social media in a safer space than before. And, as Naomi Gleit, Meta’s head of product, told Scary Mommy, “Every family is different. Some parents and teens may be older and need more supervision, and some may be younger and need less supervision. , so hopefully the product will provide that flexibility.
Horror Mom spoke with Gleit about the research, rollout, and more behind these changes.
Watch our video conversation below.
