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Instagram is overhauling the way it works for teenagers, promising more “built-in protections” for young people and added controls and reassurance for parents.<\/b><\/p>\n
The new \u201cTeen Accounts\u201d are being introduced from Tuesday in the UK, US, Canada and Australia.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The NSPCC called the announcement a “step in the right direction” but said Instagram’s owner, Meta, appeared to “putting the emphasis on children and parents needing to keep themselves safe.”<\/p>\n
Rani Govender, the NSPCC’s online child safety policy manager, said Meta and other social media companies needed to take more action themselves.<\/p>\n
“This must be backed up by proactive measures that prevent harmful content and sexual abuse from proliferating Instagram in the first place, so all children have the benefit of comprehensive protections on the products they use,” she said.<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
However, media regulator Ofcom raised concerns in April over parents’ willingness to intervene to keep their children safe online.<\/p>\n
In a talk last week, senior Meta executive Sir Nick Clegg said: \u201cOne of the things we do find\u2026 is that even when we build these controls, parents don\u2019t use them.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly viewed content about self-harm and suicide on Instagram before taking her life aged 14, told the BBC it was important to wait and see how the new policy was implemented.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it works or not we\u2019ll only find out when the measures come into place,” he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeta 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.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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How will it work?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Teen accounts will mostly change the way Instagram works for users between the ages of 13 and 15, with a number of settings turned on by default.<\/p>\n
These include strict controls on sensitive content to prevent recommendations of potentially harmful material, and muted notifications overnight. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Changing these default settings can only be done by adding a parent or guardian to the account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/picture><\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n