Did you know Meta Expands Teen Safety Controls on Instagram With Parental Approvals and Daily Usage Limits

 

Social media giant Meta just shared more information about teen account protection for its Instagram app.

The platform explains anyone below the age of 16 won’t be allowed to go live until they receive permission from their parents. They’ll also require parental approval to switch off protection for explicit content such as nudity. The latter is a protective feature that blurs any age-sensitive pictures sent through DMs when detected.
 

 We first saw the app roll out Teen Accounts last year in September. Now, it’s carrying limitations like private accounts. With the default settings in place, teenagers would need to accept new followers, and users who don’t follow them cannot see their material or interact with them.

The features in discussion include restrictions on texting, where teens would need to deal with strict messaging settings. This way, they can only be texted by those they’re following or connected to. Another feature, dubbed sensitive content restrictions, will have teens put out the most restrictive settings for sensitive material. This will limit the kind of sensitive material teens witness in different parts of the app, like Reels or Explore.

Then there will be limited interactions where teens can only receive tags or mentions from those on their followers list. They will similarly switch on the most restrictive type of anti-bullying feature out there called Hidden Words. In this way, all offensive terms and phrases would get filtered from DMs and requests.

Teens would similarly get notifications requesting them to leave the platform after an hour every day to prevent excessive use of the app. Lastly, there will be a new option for enabling sleep mode where users are reminded of their bedtime between 10pm to 7am so they can mute alerts and send out auto-replies for DMs.

Meta explained how Teen Accounts were shared to ensure teens remain guarded at all times. 97% of all teenagers between the ages of 13 to 15 will remain under the restrictions that Meta feels provide the most age-appropriate experience for youngsters.

Teen Accounts are making their way to Meta’s Facebook and Messenger apps too, beginning today. Therefore, they’ll also be very similar to Instagram and will be restricting all kinds of inappropriate material and unwanted feeds.

Meta confirmed how the release begins in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK, while other nations will be following soon. As per a new survey, 94% of all parents claim Teen Accounts are useful, and 85% feel it’s getting easier to support positive experiences on the Instagram platform for teenagers. Meanwhile, more than 90% claim that default protections inside Teen Accounts are useful for showing support to this age bracket.

In terms of minor protection and providing control for parents, TikTok was seen updating the platform with a host of new features. These entail giving parents a chance to produce customized screen time schedules and also view who that teenager would follow.