Instagram is tightening its restrictions on profiles of minors. Meta’s platform is introducing the “teen account” system for the first time with automatic protections that limit who can contact them and the content they can see. Profiles of minors will automatically be configured as “teen accounts”. Specifically, minors under 16 will need parental permission to change their settings if they want to make them less restrictive.
This new feature will be implemented within 60 days in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. In the European Union, it will be rolled out “later this year”.
With teen accounts, teenagers will be placed in the most restrictive configuration of our sensitive content controls, further reducing the likelihood that such content will be recommended to them and in many cases hiding it completely. These are important updates that will change the Instagram experience for tens of millions of teenagers,” explained Meta in an official post.
This announcement comes amid a global trend of increasing demand from governments and experts for tech companies to protect adolescents online. Just days ago in Italy, pedagogists and entertainment personalities called for smartphones to be banned for under 14s and social media for those under 16.
Among the protections implemented for Instagram teen profiles are automatic activation of a private profile setting; message restrictions only from contacts; limiting sensitive content; restrictions on mentions and disabling notifications between 10pm and 7am; a reminder to teenagers to exit the app after 60 minutes of daily use. Teenagers under 16 will require parental permission, activating supervision, to use less restrictive default settings. For those over 16, they can still activate supervision to give parents greater control over their children’s experience. With the latter, parents can also choose to block access to Instagram at certain times, regardless of age.
For those who lie about their date of birth, Meta reminds that they “often request age verification” and explains they are developing “technology to proactively identify accounts belonging to adolescents, even if the account lists an adult’s date of birth, starting in the US early next year.”
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