New restrictions for teen Instagram accounts | What the Tech?
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHAT THE TECH?) — Instagram’s parent company Meta announced new restrictions for accounts that belong to people under the age of 18.
The hope is that the new “Instagram Teen Accounts” settings will protect teens from cyberbullies and extortionists.
How do these settings work? If you’re a parent, what do you need to know?
All Instagram accounts belonging to teenagers will automatically face new restrictions, setting those accounts to private by default. With the new settings, only followers approved by the teenage account holder can see their posts. Teens will only receive messages from people they follow or who they’re already connected to. This prevents strangers from stalking young people on Instagram.
Instagram will turn on content restrictions by default. That limits sensitive and inappropriate content.
New supervision features allow parents to see who their child has been chatting with. Teen accounts will stop notifications between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. For teens who try to change their date of birth to get around the restrictions will need permission from a parent. They will also need to upload an ID or submit a video selfie to prove their age.
“Teen Accounts” should also prevent many cyber-stalkers from posing as a 15-year-old boy or girl. Those accounts will be restricted as well.
It’s unclear how effective these changes will be is unclear but it’s the biggest step any social media platform has taken to protect young users. It’s also a risk for Meta as it stands to potentially lose millions of teen users who don’t want restricted accounts and will leave for another social media platform without restrictions.
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