‘A new experience for teens, guided by parents’: Meta introduces Instagram controls for under 16s
After years of pressure from various governments around the world, including pending legislation in Australia, Meta has introduced parental controls and increased restrictions for users under 16.
Instagram Teen Accounts, is “a new experience for teens, guided by parents” that restricts what users can access and post on their accounts.
Some 100 million Instagram accounts will been automatically placed into this category within the next 60 days, with teens under 16 now needing parental permission to lessen any of the restrictions. Users under the age of 18 who sign up will automatically be given an Instagram Teen Account.
Some of the new built-in protections on Instagram Teen Accounts include: automatically being placed into private accounts; messaging restrictions and content limits; a ‘sleep mode’ which mutes notifications at night; tools allowing parents to see who their teen is messaging; and time restrictions for usage, set by parents.
Parents can also block teens from using Instagram during specific time periods, see who their teen has messaged in the past seven days, and can view the topics their teen has chosen to see content from.
Instagram is also building technology to “proactively find accounts belonging to teens, even if the account lists an adult birthday”.
Will Easton, Meta managing director, in Australia said the protections are “designed to address the biggest concerns of parents, including who their teens are interacting with online, the content they’re seeing, and whether their time is being well spent”.
“This new experience, guided by parents, will help many feel more controlled and confident regarding their teenager’s activity on Instagram,” he said.
“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.”
Jim Hungerford, CEO of the Butterfly Foundation praised Meta for “taking the lead on this critical issue”.
Hungerford noted: “We have many concerns that social media platforms and government need to address with urgency, including accurate age assurance, algorithm control and legislative changes.
“However, we can’t afford to let perfection get in the way of progress to address the harms to young people on social media, and every action to prevent them being exposed to problematic content, like this excellent Meta’s Teens Account initiative, is a step in the right direction.”
Nova presenter Michael “Wippa” Wipfli, who fronts the 36 Months campaign – the time period representing the three years of crucial development between 13 and 16 that should be spent away from social media – told Mumbrella that, while he welcomes “any positive steps to safeguard kids on social media”, he believes “we’re a long way from where we need to be.”
“This is certainly not ‘job now done'”, he told Mumbrella on Wednesday morning.
“We can’t and won’t accept a watered-down execution on what should be a courageous course of action from our elected officials.
“Australia can lead the world on this issue and safeguard the digital future of all young Australians.
“The minimum age for social media citizenship must be 16. It really is a matter of national health. Important to note the ability of the platform to adjust their tech when required.”
Instagram’s change comes as Snapchat’s CEO Evan Spiegel doubted the need for app-level restrictions, arguing parent-driven controls already exist.
“Parents have already got these tools today,” Spiegel told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“We use the iOS-level controls and screen time to limit what our teen – we’ve got an almost 14-year-old at home – what he’s able to use.
“We have ‘family centre’ as well inside of Snapchat that allows parents to monitor their teens’ activity on Snapchat and put in place more stringent content controls and things like that.
“We’ve really done a lot to empower parents to make the right choices for their teenagers. And again, all those tools already exist for parents who would rather restrict the use of certain apps for their teens.”
This echoes Snap’s recent submission to an Australian Senate committee, which argued “age collection is already part of the device ID process when registering a new device, such as an iPhone or Android phone” and “leveraging the potential of device-level age verification could drive significant progress in what has remained an intractable policy challenge until now”.
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Expect the “18 yr old” population on Meta to suddenly boom in the coming months…
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