Instagram is making teen accounts private by default as it tries to make the platform safer for children amid a growing backlash against how young peoplesa国际传媒檚 lives.
Beginning Tuesday in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia, anyone under under 18 who signs up for Instagram will be placed into restrictive teen accounts and those with existing accounts will be migrated over the next 60 days. Teens in the European Union will see their accounts adjusted later this year.
Meta acknowledges that teenagers may lie about their age and says it will require them to verify their ages in more instances, like if they try to create a new account with an adult birthday. The Menlo Park, California company also said it is building technology that proactively finds teen accounts that pretend to be grownups and automatically places them into the restricted teen accounts.
The teen accounts will be private by default. Private messages are restricted so teens can only receive them from people they follow or are already connected to. or those promoting cosmetic procedures, will be limited, Meta said. Teens will also get notifications if they are on Instagram for more than 60 minutes and a sa国际传媒渟leep modesa国际传媒� will be enabled that turns off notifications and sends auto-replies to direct messages from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m.
While these settings will be turned on for all teens, 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to turn them off. Kids under 16 will need their parentssa国际传媒� permission to do so.
sa国际传媒淭he three concerns wesa国际传媒檙e hearing from parents are that their teens are seeing content that they donsa国际传媒檛 want to see or that theysa国际传媒檙e getting contacted by people they donsa国际传媒檛 want to be contacted by or that theysa国际传媒檙e spending too much on the app,sa国际传媒� said Naomi Gleit, head of product at Meta. sa国际传媒淪o teen accounts is really focused on addressing those three concerns.sa国际传媒�
The announcement comes as the company faces lawsuits from that accuse it of harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.
In the past, Metasa国际传媒檚 efforts at addressing teen safety and mental health on its platforms have been met with criticism that the changes donsa国际传媒檛 go far enough. For instance, while kids will get a notification when theysa国际传媒檝e spent 60 minutes on the app, they will be able to bypass it and continue scrolling.
Thatsa国际传媒檚 unless the childsa国际传媒檚 parents turn on sa国际传媒減arental supervisionsa国际传媒� mode, where parents can limit teenssa国际传媒� time on Instagram to a specific amount of time, such as 15 minutes.
With the latest changes, Meta is giving parents more options to oversee their kidssa国际传媒� accounts. Those under 16 will need a parent or guardiansa国际传媒檚 permission to change their settings to less restrictive ones. They can do this by setting up sa国际传媒減arental supervisionsa国际传媒� on their accounts and connecting them to a parent or guardian.
Nick Clegg, Metasa国际传媒檚 president of global affairs, said last week that the company has introduced in recent years.
Gleit said she thinks teen accounts will create a sa国际传媒渂ig incentive for parents and teens to set up parental supervision.sa国际传媒�
sa国际传媒淧arents will be able to see, via the family center, who is messaging their teen and hopefully have a conversation with their teen,sa国际传媒� she said. sa国际传媒淚f there is bullying or harassment happening, parents will have visibility into who their teensa国际传媒檚 following, whosa国际传媒檚 following their teen, who their teen has messaged in the past seven days and hopefully have some of these conversations and help them navigate these really difficult situations online.sa国际传媒�
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said last year that tech companies put too much on parents when it comes to keeping children safe on social media.
sa国际传媒淲esa国际传媒檙e asking parents to manage a technology thatsa国际传媒檚 rapidly evolving that fundamentally changes how their kids think about themselves, how they build friendships, how they experience the world sa国际传媒� and technology, by the way, that prior generations never had to manage,sa国际传媒� in May 2023.
Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press
