Instagram launches ‘teen accounts’ to ease lawmakers’ scrutiny

Instagram has long been in the crosshairs of lawmakers for allegedly undermining the mental health of teenagers. And in countries such as Australia, for example, measures are being considered to restrict children and teenagers’ access to social networks. Meta’s social network is aware of the regulatory pressure hanging over it and perhaps for this reason it has just raised the curtain on a new feature called “teen accounts” that will allow parents to have greater control over their children’s activities on this platformwho will be able to prevent, for example, from connecting to Instagram at night.

Just a week after the Australian government proposed an age limit to restrict children and teenagers’ access to social media, Instagram launches a feature that is specifically aimed at users under 18 years of age and which will benefit only those who connect to this platform for the first time. However, this function will later be extended to previously existing accounts with minors as holders.

Relying on the new “Teen Accounts” Feature, Parents will be able to impose a daily time limit on their children when using Instagram, prevent teenagers from connecting to the Internet at certain timessee the accounts with which their children are exchanging messages and also view the different categories of content that their children are confronted with on this platform.

Accounts of teenagers who are new to Instagram are already governed by the strictest privacy settings by defaultwhich prevent minors from receiving messages from adults whom they do not follow on this social network and which automatically block notifications in the application at night.

The “Teen Accounts” feature will be available for testing today in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia

With the introduction of the new “Teen Accounts” feature Children under 16 will now need their parents’ permission to change privacy settings on Instagramwhile users between 16 and 18 years old will be able to modify them independently.

On the other hand, the “Teen Accounts” feature will automatically activate the most restrictive version of «Hidden words»Instagram’s anti-bullying feature, and also restrictions that will directly affect what minors see Reels to prevent potentially sensitive content from reaching your eyes.

The functionalitywhich can only be used if at least one of the minor’s parents or guardians also has an Instagram account, will begin testing this Wednesday in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia. And in the European Union, the “accounts for teenagers” feature will be enabled by the end of the year, according to Meta.

Although the introduction of the “teen accounts” feature comes shortly after the Australian government announced its intention to impose a minimum age for connecting to social networks, Antigone David, Meta’s global director of security, insists that This new feature is the result of parents’ concern for their children’s well-being on Instagram, not regulatory pressure from any government.

It so happens that Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said last week at an event held in London that Parents were not using the parental control systems that Facebook and Instagram made available.

Beyond Australia, Instagram is also in the spotlight in the United Stateswhere more than 40 states have filed a lawsuit against the social network for being “harmful and addictive” for children and adolescents, and also in the old continent the European Parliament has moved to end the addictive design of social networks that makes minors so vulnerable.