Digital shield

To combat threats that may occur to young people on social networks, Instagram launches teen accounts. They will be mandatory for all registered users under the age of 18 and will have a number of privacy protection features.

• A number of restrictions are automatically imposed on young users, including those already registered on the platform.
• All teen accounts will be private by defaultso the user will have to manually approve each follower.
• Teen accounts will be subject to strict restrictions. will not allow strangers to send private messages young users
• There is also a “Sleep mode” feature that turns off notifications between 10pm and 7am at night to monitor teens’ social media usage.
• Notifications will also appear reminding young users to take a break from Instagram and close the app.
• As for the content, young people will need it Select topics for the content you wantThey’ll see it in their feed. There are a limited number of themes to choose from for this age group. Posts on related topics will then appear on the Explore page or in the platform’s recommendations.

Process of choosing topics for content in the feed/Photo Meta

Many of these settings, like not being able to send messages to strangers and restricting “sensitive content,” are already available for teens on Instagram. But now another big change is coming: Teens 16 and older can change some settings, but those under that age will need parental permission to make any changes.

If parents set up tracking tools on Instagram will be able to monitor which accounts their children are exchanging messages with (at the same time, parents will not see the content of these messages and what topics the child is viewing.

Changes to accounts will only be made with parental consent / Photo Meta

Parents will be able to see what the child is doing in the app, how much time he spends there / Meta photo

Parents will also have the option to limit the time their kids spend on the app by setting a “sleep mode” that will turn off notifications or make the app completely inaccessible.

Instagram accounts for teens are now available to users in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, with rollouts to other countries to come.

Verification tools

To prevent young users from resorting to workarounds, Instagram now has more ways to verify ageFor example, upload an ID card or a video selfie. Instagram will also use AI to verify a user’s age using information collected through other means, but ensuring this is accurate will require a multi-layered approach.

The company also says it plans to find teens who lie about their age when creating an Instagram account. This will apparently be done by artificial intelligence.

The changes are unlikely to satisfy Meta’s fiercest critics, who argue the company is putting its own profits ahead of young people’s safety and well-being, but young users of the program will face new restrictions on use.