Instagram announced on Tuesday that it is adding a feature called “teen accounts” to its site. This will make it safer for users in India, which has over 350 million users and is one of Instagram’s biggest markets.
As of last year, the company had Teen Accounts in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Meta moved Instagram users under 16 years old’s accounts to these new kinds of accounts, which of course have more restrictions. These teen accounts are private by default and have limits on what they can say, how they can connect with others, how long they can stay online, and a sleep mode.
“Making the internet a safer and more responsible place is very important to us at Meta.” “By adding Instagram Teen Accounts to India, we are boosting safety measures, giving parents more control over their kids’ content, and making sure that teens have a better experience,” Natasha Jog, Instagram’s Director of Public Policy India, wrote in a blog post.
To change some settings in their teen account, users younger than 16 will need to get permission from their parents or guardians. Also, parents of users over 16 will be able to decide to keep an eye on their child’s account.
Parents can see who their kids are talking to online, but not what they are saying. They can also control how much they use the app each day and block it at certain times.
In terms of content, Meta only lets people who are linked to each other get messages from each other. If the sender and receiver are friends on any Meta site or have talked on direct messages (DMs) before but don’t follow each other, the company looks at this as a connected person. Teenagers can also be tagged by people they follow.
Meta also removes offensive words and sentences from a teen’s account on its own. Also, the company is taking away material from the Explore page and Reels that includes fighting or ads for cosmetics. Teenagers can change the topics on their Explore page to include things like Soccer, Crafts, Dance, Music & Audio, Cats, Food & Drink, and Computer Science. The page will then show content that is connected to the topics that were chosen.
Meta said that it also checks users’ ages in other ways, such as by checking IDs and taking video selfies, since teens often lie about their age on different platforms.
Also Read: Soon, Instagram Will Let You Change How It Decides What to Suggest
India released draft rules for its data security law last month. The rules say that companies can’t use the data of users under 18 without getting permission from their parents, which can be checked. If these rules are made official, platforms may need to have extra safety steps.
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