New Instagram Teen Accounts To Offer Built-In Protections For Kids
New Instagram teen accounts are being introduced by Meta. The accounts are meant to offer built-in protections to help kids, while offering parents some peace of mind. Why it’s needed, and will it work? Let’s get into it.
Why We Need New Instagram Teen Accounts
It’s no secret that Instagram use among teens has been a detriment to their mental health. In fact, internal research done by Facebook and an investigation by the Wall Street Journal, raised serious concerns. The concerns were over the apps impact on the mental health of teens, including the body image of girls. Some of the other findings from the Wall Street Journal investigation in 2021 include:
- “We make body-image issues worse for one in three teenage girls”
- Instagram was blamed for for increased levels of anxiety and depression.
- In 2020, research found 32% of teenage girls surveyed said when they felt bad about their bodies, and Instagram made them feel worse.
- Some 13% of UK teenagers and 6% of US users surveyed traced a desire to kill themselves to Instagram.
And this is just some of the findings. Since that report, Instagram released its own research on that report, and vowed to make changes to the app. Here’s one of them.
What Are The New Instagram Teen Accounts?
Instagram parent Meta just released information about the new Instagram teen accounts. They say that they developed it with parent and teens in mind. The protections address parents’ biggest concerns, including who their kids are talking to online, what they’re seeing, and how much time they’re spending on the app. Here are the main takeaways from their website.
Private accounts: Teens under 16 will have default private accounts.
Restrictions on messaging: Teens will have the strictest messaging settings. They can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to.
Sensitive content restrictions: Teens are automatically placed in the most restrictive settings of sensitive content control. This would include things like people fighting or promoting cosmetic procedures.
Time limit reminders: Teens will get notifications telling them to leave the app after 60 minutes.
Sleep mode enabled: Sleep mode will be turned on between 10pm and 7am. Overnight notifications will be muted and auto-replies will be sent to DMs.
