App usage time limit, message restrictions, filters for offensive words and phrases. Instagram is implementing a series of new settings to make the social network a safer place for minors. Meta has announced the introduction of teen accounts on Instagram: “A new experience for teens, driven by their parents.”
The accounts for teenagers – explains the group – “have built-in protection settings that limit who can contact teens and the content they can view.” By January, teen accounts worldwide will change. The first to undergo the change will be teenagers from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, whose accounts will be transformed within 60 days. Meta will move to the European Union later this year.
Who do teens talk to on social media? How much time do they spend on Instagram? What content do they watch? Instagram’s new settings aim to address parents’ biggest concerns about their children’s online lives. Once the teen account is activated, a series of restrictions will be automatically set for children under the age of 16 and only parents will be able to choose whether to modify them to make them less strict.
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It starts with account privacy.
Profiles of children under the age of 16 will be private by default: Teenagers will have to accept new followers and only those who follow them will be able to see their content and interact with them. The same goes for private messages, which become limited: Teenagers will only be able to receive messages from those they follow or from people they are already in contact with.
Interactions will also be limited: Teenagers can only be tagged and mentioned by the people they follow; in addition, comments and private message requests containing offensive words or phrases will be filtered.
Teens will be put on restrictive content settings.
The ‘Search’ and ‘Reels’ sections will be subject to restrictions: Teenagers will automatically be placed in the most restrictive content control settings that limit sensitive content. Kids will receive notifications inviting them to exit the app after 60 minutes of daily use and it will activate automatic app sleep mode between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., with notifications turned off and auto-replies sent to messages in Direct.
-by Adnkronos International, Rome (TNS)
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