Instagram, a photo and video-sharing social networking is introducing a Family Center and Parental Supervision Tools in which parents and guidance can use to monitor and limit their kids’ usage of the platform
This came into effect months after a Facebook whistleblower’s shows concern about the platform’s influence on younger users.
According to an Instagram blog post published on Wednesday. The tools give parents the ability to see how much time their children spend on Instagram and set limits on their use, as well as visibility into the accounts they follow or are followed by. Parents in the United States can now use the services, with plans to expand globally in the coming months.
What we heard
Last year, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked hundreds of internal documents, including some that showed the company was aware of the ways Instagram can harm mental health and body image, especially among adolescent girls. In hearings, lawmakers interrogated Facebook and Instagram executives about these and other details from the documents, and Instagram postponed plans to release a version of the app for children under the age of 13.
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The Features
The new feature were first announced in a blog post by Instagram head, Adam Mosseri late last year, along with some features aimed specifically at teen users at the time, such as one that encourages users to take a break from the app after a set amount of time.
What to know about the tools
According to the Mosseri, “Supervision tools on Instagram are available in the US today, with plans to roll out globally in the coming months. Our first set of parental supervision tools on Instagram will allow parents and guardians to”:
- View how much time their teens spend on Instagram and set time limits.
- Be notified when their teen shares they’ve reported someone.
- View and receive updates on what accounts their teens follow and the accounts that follow their teens.
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Learn more about how to set up supervision on Instagram. Teens will need to initiate supervision for now in the app on mobile devices, and we will add the option for parents to initiate supervision in the app and on desktop in June. Teens will need to approve parental supervision if their parent or guardian requests it.
The tools are part of an online “Family Center” being built by Instagram’s parent company, Meta, with the goal of eventually having a single location where parents can supervise how their children use Meta’s various apps and technologies.
The VR parental supervision tools that will roll out to Quest in the coming months. The functionality will be extended to existing unlock pattern on Quest headsets, starting in April. This will allow parents to prevent teens 13+ from accessing experiences they feel aren’t age-appropriate by using an Unlock Pattern to lock access to those apps. And in May, teens 13+ will be automatically blocked from downloading IARC rated age-inappropriate apps. A Parent Dashboard will be launched, hosting a suite of supervision tools that will link to the teen’s account based on consent from both sides.