Instagram accounts for users under 18 years old will be made private by default, which means that only followers approved by the account holder can see their posts.
The app, owned by Meta, also plans to stop messages to minors from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM to promote sleep. Additionally, Instagram will introduce more monitoring tools for adults, including a function that allows parents to see accounts that their teenager has recently sent a message to.
Instagram's "Teen accounts" initiative is one of the most far-reaching measures taken by an app to address teenagers' use of social media.
Adam Mosseri, Instagram's CEO, says that the new settings and features aim to address parents' greatest concerns about their children's online lives, such as inappropriate contacts, inappropriate content, and too much screen time.
We decided to focus on what parents think because they know better what is suitable for their children than any tech company, any company, senators, policymakers, or regulatory authorities, he says in an interview.
