Instagram launches accounts for teenagers

This is what the teen accounts on Instagram have to offer

Teen accounts have default restrictions on who can contact young users and what content they can see. Anyone under the age of 16 will automatically receive a teen account. If a user wants to evade the strict guidelines, they will need permission from at least one parent.

The new teen accounts will initially be available in the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia. Accounts will be converted accordingly within 60 days. The accounts will also be integrated in the EU by the end of the year. And teen accounts will be introduced for other meta platforms as early as 2025.

The reason for the changes is Instagram the concerns of many parents:

Parents want to feel confident that their teens can connect with friends on social media and explore their interests without having worrying or inappropriate experiences. We understand parents’ concerns, so we’ve created a whole new experience for teens in our apps with Teen Accounts. The new features are designed to better support parents so they can be confident their teens are safe with appropriate protections.

Teenagers must now prepare for this

Anyone who has a teen account automatically has a private account. Teens have to confirm new followers first, and people who don’t follow them can’t interact with them or see their content. They can also only write to people they follow or are in contact with. There are strict restrictions on content display in the Explore and Reels areas: cosmetic procedures or fights should not be shown to them.

When tagging, only people in the following context are allowed to tag teenagers. And offensive terms and expressions are filtered out in comments and message requests for teenagers. In addition, Instagram sends reminders to young users to stop using the app after 60 minutes a day. In addition, Meta basically sends teenagers to bed:

Sleep mode is activated between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., muting notifications and sending automatic replies to direct messages.

Requests for changes must be confirmed by parents. To do this, parents must activate parental supervision in the family area, which already gives them a wide range of control options. Parents can now, for example, receive insights into who their teenagers are chatting with and what content they are consuming, and they can set time limits or block platform use at certain times.

New control mechanisms for parents in the app (click on the image to see a larger view), © Instagram

How Instagram wants to enforce teen accounts

Now, one might ask whether younger users would even consider using teenage accounts given these restrictions. Perhaps they are simply giving false dates of birth. But Instagram wants to take stronger action against this practice in the future – even if it will not be possible to prevent it completely.

Teenagers may not tell you their true age, so we are now asking them to do so in more places, to prove their agefor example, if they want to use a new account with a birth date that makes them an adult. We’re also developing technology to identify teen accounts and automatically apply age-appropriate protections and settings. This allows us to proactively find teen accounts, even if they’re an adult based on their stated birth date. We’ll be testing this change in the U.S. starting early next year. You can find more information here.

The changeover from Instagram will begin next week. Every newly registered account under the age of 16 will now automatically be treated as a teenager account. You can find even more details about the changeover in Instagram’s current blog.


Meta strengthens youth protection for Facebook and Instagram users

Meta lettering neon, pink,
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Source: onlinemarketing.de