While Australia and other countries debate the justification for banning children under the age of 14 from social media, Meta has announced a significant “reimagining” of the teen experience on Instagram.
These new “teen accounts” will be private by default, have maximum content and messaging restrictions, pause notifications at night, and add new ways for teens to express their content preferences.
Importantly, children under the age of 16 will now require parental permission to change these default settings.
The move, which is being described as giving “peace of mind” for parents, is a welcome one – but parents and guardians should use it to talk to their children about their online spaces.
What’s different about Teen Accounts? Teen Accounts is a combination of new features and repackaging of several tools that already existed but hadn’t received the visibility or acceptance that Meta wanted.
Bringing these incremental changes under teen accounts will make these changes more visible to teens and caregivers.
Key features: 1. Accounts for children under the age of 18 will be private by default, and children under the age of 16 will only be able to change that setting with parental permission. 2. Teens will only be able to receive messages from people they already follow or are connected with. 3. Content restrictions and blocking of offensive words in comments and messages will be set to the maximum possible setting. 4. Notifications from Instagram will be turned off between 10 pm and 7 am. 5. Teens will be reminded to leave Instagram after 60 minutes of use on any given day.
Some of these tools are more useful than others. The reminder to leave Instagram after 60 minutes, which teens can simply click and move on, sets a pretty low bar in terms of time management.
But default account settings matter. They can really shape a user’s experience of a platform. For teens, having a private account by default, with protections around content and messaging set to the strongest settings, will significantly impact their time on Instagram.
Preventing kids under 16 from changing these settings without parent or guardian consent is the biggest change, and it really differentiates the teen experience of Instagram from the adult experience.
Most of these changes are focused on safety and age-appropriate experiences. But it’s a positive step for Meta to also include new ways for teens to communicate what content they like, rather than just relying on algorithms to predict their preferences.
Do parents and guardians have to do anything? Promoting teen accounts, Instagram head Adam Mosseri emphasized that the change is intended to give parents “peace of mind”. These changes do not require explicit intervention from parents.
Mosseri said, “I’m a dad and this is a significant change to Instagram and one that I’m personally very proud of.” It’s part of a long-term strategy to establish Mosseri as a prominent parenting voice to increase his perceived credibility in the space.
If parents or guardians want to keep track of what teens are doing on Instagram, or have access to more granular controls, they will need to use their own accounts for “supervision.” These include setting individual time limits, seeing an overview of teens’ activity, or allowing them to change any default settings.
The real opportunity here is for parents to take these changes as a chance to discuss with their kids about how they are using Instagram and other social media platforms.
Whatever security measures are taken, it is important for parents to build and maintain a sense of openness and trust, so that young people can ask them questions, and share difficulties and challenges they face online.
Meta said the shift to teen accounts will reduce the level of inappropriate content teens are exposed to, but it can never be perfect.
These changes reduce risks, but do not eliminate them. Ensuring that young people have someone they can turn to for help if they see, hear or experience something that is inappropriate or makes them uncomfortable will always be incredibly important. That is true peace of mind.
Can teens still not lie about their age? Initially, teen accounts will apply to new teens who sign up. These changes will also apply to existing teen users whose birth dates are already on Instagram.
Over time, both Mosseri and Meta’s global head of security, Antigone Davis, have said Instagram is rolling out new tools that will identify teens using Instagram, even if they haven’t entered the correct birth date. These tools aren’t active yet, but are expected to arrive next year.
If it proves to be accurate, it will be a welcome change. However, the effectiveness of estimating or predicting age is yet to be proven.
The big picture Teen accounts are launching this week in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with the rollout expected to take up to 60 days to reach all users in these countries. Users in the rest of the world will get Teen accounts in January 2025.
For a long time, Instagram has not done enough to look after the interests of young users. Child rights advocates have mostly supported teen accounts as a significant positive change in the experiences and safety of young people on Instagram.
Yet it is uncertain whether Meta has taken sufficient steps to ban young people (whether they are under the age of 14 or under the age of 16, depending on the proposal) from all social media in Australia and elsewhere.
Teen accounts are certainly a meaningful step in the right direction, but it’s important to remember that it took Instagram 14 years to get to this point. That’s a very long time.
Ultimately, these changes should motivate any platform open to children or teens to ensure they provide an age-appropriate experience. Young users can gain a lot from being online, but we must minimise the risks.
In the meantime, if these changes open the door for parents and guardians to talk to young people about their online experiences, that will be a win. (The Conversation)
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)