- Meta has released Instagram Teen Accounts that carry built-in protection tools to safeguard teens.
- Teen accounts will protect teens from harmful content, unsolicited messages, and allow better supervision.
- These settings cannot be changed without express permission from the parents.
Meta has released a new Instagram feature for underage teens who are vulnerable on the platform. Dubbed Teen Accounts, parents will now control who can contact their children and communicate with them. This a much-needed feature these days when so many teens are facing mental health issues, cyberbullying, violence, and harmful and sensitive content.
How Instagram Teen Account Will Work
Instagram Teen Account’s built-in protections will limit what others can see on your teen’s account and how they interact with them. Here’s how Instagram will implement Teen Account protections in the coming weeks.
- Teens under 16 will automatically be placed under Teen accounts by Meta which will act as a private account.
- Teens under the age of 16 will need their parent’s permission before they can change these settings on their own.
- New users will be automatically placed into Teen Accounts.
- Existing users will be first notified before being moved to Teen accounts in the next 60 days.
How Meta Will Verify Age
Meta has partnered with Yoti for ID verification. Teens are required to upload a video selfie with ID card to verify their age. The app will use some algorithm, maybe AI, to determine using the facial features whether the teen is underage or overage. Teens do have the option to ask their friends to help with verification though.
Instagram Teen Account Protection Features
Parents who want to take an active part in protecting their child on Instagram using Teen Accounts can use Instagram’s Supervision feature to do so. There are quite a lot of features to go through:
Here is a handy list of all the Teen Accounts protection features you should know about:
- Nobody can message teens unless they are a contact or are already connected.
- Tags, mentions, and content remixing are allowed only from people they follow.
- Potentially harmful and offensive comments and messages will be hidden automatically using strict Hidden Words settings.
- Teen accounts will see less sensitive content from accounts they don’t follow.
- Teen accounts come with a sleep mode that is scheduled from 10 PM to 7 AM automatically but can be changed by the parent only.
- In sleep mode, notifications will be muted, auto-replies to messages will be enabled, and the teen will get a reminder to close the Instagram app.
- Parents can view what teens are watching, following, or whom they are DMing giving them more supervision powers.
This is a step in the right direction and will definitely help several families in the long run.
