Instagram gives parents more control over teen accounts

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

gives parents more control over teen accounts

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Getty Images

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

is overhauling the way it works for teenagers, promising more “built-in protections” for young people and added controls and reassurance for parents.

The new “Teen Accounts” are being introduced from Tuesday in the ***, US, Canada and Australia.

Social media companies are under pressure worldwide to make their platforms safer, with concerns that not enough is being done to shield young people from harmful content.

The NSPCC called the announcement a “step in the right direction” but said

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

’s owner, Meta, appeared to “putting the emphasis on children and parents needing to keep themselves safe.”

Rani Govender, the NSPCC’s online child safety policy manager, said Meta and other social media companies needed to take more action themselves.

“This must be backed up by proactive measures that prevent harmful content and ******* ****** from proliferating

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in the first place, so all children have the benefit of comprehensive protections on the products they use,” she said.

Meta describes the changes as a “new experience for teens, guided by parents”, and says they will “better support parents, and give them peace of mind that their teens are safe with the right protections in place.”

However, media regulator Ofcom raised concerns in April

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

In a talk last week, senior Meta executive Sir Nick Clegg said: “One of the things we do find… is that even when we build these controls, parents don’t use them.”

Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly viewed content about self-harm and ******** on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

before taking her life aged 14, told the BBC it was important to wait and see how the new policy was implemented.

“Whether it works or not we’ll only find out when the measures come into place,” he said.

“Meta is very good at drumming up PR and making these big announcements, but what they also have to be good at is being transparent and sharing how well their measures are working.”

How will it work?

Teen accounts will mostly change the way

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

works for users between the ages of 13 and 15, with a number of settings turned on by default.

These include strict controls on sensitive content to prevent recommendations of potentially harmful material, and muted notifications overnight.

Accounts will also be set to private rather than public – meaning teenagers will have to actively accept new followers and their content cannot be viewed by people who don’t follow them.

Changing these default settings can only be done by adding a parent or guardian to the account.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

will present under-16s who try to change key default settings in their teen account with a pop up saying they need parental permission.

Parents who choose to supervise their child’s account will be able to see who they message and the topics they have said they are interested in – though they will not be able to view the content of messages.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

says it will begin moving millions of existing teen users into the new experience within 60 days of notifying them of the changes.

Age identification

The system will primarily rely on users being honest about their ages – though

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

already has tools that seek to verify a user’s age if there are suspicions they are not telling the truth.

From January, in the US, it will also start using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to try and proactively detect teens using ****** accounts, to put them back into a teen account.

The ***’s Online Safety Act, passed earlier this year, requires online platforms to take action to keep children safe, or face huge fines.

Ofcom warned social media sites in May

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

– and banned for under-18s – if they fail to comply with new online safety rules.

Social media industry analyst Matt Navarra described the changes as significant – but said they hinged on enforcement.

“As we’ve seen with teens throughout history, in these sorts of scenarios, they will find a way around the blocks, if they can,” he told the BBC.

“So I think

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

will need to ensure that safeguards can’t easily be bypassed by more tech-savvy teens.”

Questions for Meta

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

is by no means the first platform to introduce such tools for parents – and it already claims to have more than 50 tools aimed at keeping teens safe.

It introduced a family centre and supervision tools for parents in 2022 that allowed them to see the accounts their child follows and who follows them, among other features.

Snapchat also introduced its own family centre letting parents over the age of 25 see who their child is messaging and limit their ability to view certain content.

In early September

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

said it

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, such as those which “idealise” certain body types.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

to check the age of teens who try to change their age to over 18, through a video selfie.

This raises the question of why despite the large number of protections on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, young people are still exposed to harmful content.

An Ofcom study

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

found that every single child it spoke to had seen violent material online, with

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, WhatsApp and Snapchat being the most frequently named services they found it on.

While they are also among the biggest, it’s a clear indication of a problem that has not yet been solved.

Under the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, platforms will have to show they are committed to removing ******** content, including child ******* ****** material (CSAM) or content that promotes ******** or self-harm.

But the rules are not expected to fully take effect until 2025.

In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently announced plans to ban social media for children by bringing in a new age limit for kids to use platforms.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

’s latest tools put control more firmly in the hands of parents, who will now take even more direct responsibility for deciding whether to allow their child more freedom on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, and supervising their activity and interactions.

They will of course also need to have their own

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

account.

But ultimately, parents do not run

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

itself and cannot control the algorithms which push content towards their children, or what is shared by its billions of users around the world.

Social media expert Paolo Pescatore said it was an “important step in safeguarding children’s access to the world of social media and fake news.”

“The smartphone has opened up to a world of disinformation, inappropriate content fuelling a change in behaviour among children,” he said.

“More needs to be done to improve children’s digital wellbeing and it starts by giving control back to parents.”

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#parents #control #teen #accounts

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up