In a move aimed at increasing parental control over teenage social media use, Meta has announced the rollout of its new “teen accounts” feature for Instagram.
The new feature will give parents oversight never before offered by Instagram, including the ability to set daily time limits, block access during specific hours, and monitor interactions and communication on the platform, according to The Guardian. The rollout of new features applies to accounts in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.
Teens are the primary users of social media, according to the Pew Research Center.
Teenagers who sign up for Instagram will automatically be placed into the teen account category, which comes with the strictest privacy settings. For users ages 16-18, these settings will be applied by default but can be adjusted independently. However, those under 16 will need parental consent to alter these default settings.
The new parental control feature, which will initially only affect new account users under the age of 16, will eventually be applied to existing accounts of minors over the coming months.
As previously covered by The Dallas Express, a new Texas law, HB 18, was passed earlier this year, mandating parental consent for minors to open specific accounts. The legislation, called the SCOPE Act, went into effect on September 1. The law is part of a growing movement among states to increase parental oversight of kids’ online activities.
Meta has indicated that similar features could potentially be introduced for other platforms like Facebook in the future, per The Guardian.
In late May, the American Psychological Association (APA) issued new recommendations on adolescent social media use, based on research on its effect on teenagers, as previously reported by DX.
The recommendations include parental monitoring of children’s accounts, with increasing autonomy as their kids age; limiting social media use so as not to interfere with adolescents’ sleep and physical activity; and training youths in social media literacy skills. More recommendations can be found on the APA website.