Hyderabad: Celebrating Safer Internet Day on Tuesday, Meta introduced Teen Accounts to Instagram in India. These accounts are designed to make the online space safer and age-appropriate for teenagers. They limit unwanted interactions, enhance privacy settings, and authorise parents to oversee their teenager's Instagram activity. Notably, Teen Accounts were released on September 17, 2024, in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
Teen Accounts: Built-In Protections
Teen Account protections are built to tackle key concerns of parents, such as with whom their teens interact online, the type of content teens are exposed to, and how they manage their time online. Notably, the safeguards of these accounts are enabled by default, and teenagers under 16 who want to make the account less restrictive will require parental approval. Moreover, parents can supervise their teenagers above 16 as well.
Following is a list of safeguards that come with Teen Accounts
- Private Accounts: Teen accounts will be set to private by default, applicable for both under 16 and under 18 users. As the account will be private, teenagers will not be able to approve new followers; non-followers will not be able to view or interact with them as well.
- Messaging Restrictions: Teens will not be able to send or receive messages from non-followers.
- Sensitive Content Control: Teen accounts will have limited exposure to sensitive content. Content such as physical fights or promotions of cosmetic procedures will be restricted.
- Limited Interactions: Teenagers will be able to tag or mention only people they follow. Anti-bullying and Hidden Words features will be set as default to filter out offensive language in DM and comment section.
- Time Limit Reminders: A notification will prompt teens to exit Instagram after 60 minutes of usage.
- Sleep Mode: From 10 PM to 7 AM, sleep mode will be activated, muting all Instagram notifications and DMs received overnight.
Instagram has also taken measures to ensure that teenagers do not bypass these restrictions. The most common one is creating an account with misrepresentation of age. To counter this, Instagram has created additional verification steps that will be required in certain situations when young users try to create a fake account.
Teen Accounts: Supervision Tools For Parents
Teen accounts by default come with safeguards, but parents can additionally control the account using the below-mentioned supervision features:
- Monitoring recent conversations: Parents will have access to the list of people their teens have texted within the past seven days. Notably, they will not be able to read the content of the message.
- Setting Daily Time Limits: Parents can set a time limit for their teen's Instagram usage. Once the set time is finished, they will not be able to access their Instagram account.
- Blocking Instagram during specific hours: Apart from daily time limits, parents can also restrict their teens from accessing Instagram at night or at any specific time.
