This article was written by Kayelene Kerr from eSafeKids.
Meta has just introduced Instagram Teen Accounts. Teen Accounts provide baseline protections for all teens so parents can feel assured that their teen’s experience on Instagram comes with automatically applied settings.
The new Teen Account protections are designed to address parents’ biggest concerns, including who their teens are talking to online, the content they’re seeing and whether their time is being well spent.
Instagram Teen Accounts: What are the key changes?
These new protections are turned on automatically. Parents decide if teens under 16 years of age can change any of these settings to be less strict.
Private accounts
With default private accounts, teens need to accept new followers and people who don’t follow them can’t see their content or interact with them. This applies to all teens under 16 (including those already on Instagram and those signing up) and teens under 18 when they sign up for the app.
Messaging restrictions
Teens will be placed in the strictest messaging settings, so they can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to.
Sensitive content restrictions
Teens will automatically be placed into the most restrictive setting for sensitive content which includes not being recommended the following content; self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, violent content (eg fight videos), promotion of cosmetic procedures, and sexually explicit content.
Limited interactions
Teens can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow. The most restrictive version of the anti-bullying feature will be automatically turned on. Hidden Words will mean offensive words and phrases will be filtered out of teens’ comments and DM requests.
Time limit reminders
Teens will get notifications telling them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day.
Sleep mode enabled
Sleep mode will be turned on between 10:00pm and 7:00am. This will mute notifications overnight and send auto-replies to DMs.
Teens under 16 years of age
Teens under 16 years of age will need their parent’s permission to use less protective settings. To get permission, teens will need to set up parental supervision on Instagram. If parents want more oversight over their older teen’s (16+) you have the option to turn on parental supervision. Then, you can approve any changes to these settings, irrespective of your teen’s age.
Insights
While Teen Accounts put new protections in place automatically, many parents may want to be more involved so there are additional supervision features including:
Get insights into who your teens are chatting with
While parents can’t read their teen’s messages, now they will be able to see who their teen has messaged in the past seven days.
Set total daily time limits for teens’ Instagram usage
Parents can decide how much time their teen can spend on Instagram each day. Once a teen hits that limit, they’ll no longer be able to access the app.
Block teens from using Instagram for specific time periods
Parents can choose to block their teens from using Instagram at night, or specific time periods, with one easy button.
See topics your teen is looking at
Parents can view the age-appropriate topics their teen has chosen to see content from, based on their interests.
A Final Thought
While Teen Accounts will play an important role in creating safer digital environments and experiences for young people it will be most effective when used in conjunction with ongoing parental supervision/oversight, education, conversation and participation.
More Information
Learn more about Teen Accounts here.
Here you'll find step-by-step instructions for setting up supervision.
Here you'll find Instagram's Parent Guide: Helping your teen navigate Instagram safely.
You may like to read the following eSafeKids Blogs:
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About The Author
Kayelene Kerr is recognised as one of Western Australia’s most experienced specialist providers of Protective Behaviours, Body Safety, Cyber Safety, Digital Wellness and Pornography education workshops. Kayelene is passionate about the prevention of child abuse and sexual exploitation, drawing on over 27 years’ experience of study and law enforcement, investigating sexual crimes, including technology facilitated crimes. Kayelene delivers engaging and sought after prevention education workshops to educate, equip and empower children and young people, and to help support parents, carers, educators and other professionals. Kayelene believes protecting children from harm is a shared responsibility and everyone can play a role in the care, safety and protection of children. Kayelene aims to inspire the trusted adults in children’s lives to tackle sometimes challenging topics.
About eSafeKids
eSafeKids strives to reduce and prevent harm through proactive prevention education, supporting and inspiring parents, carers, educators and other professionals to talk with children, young people and vulnerable adults about protective behaviours, body safety, cyber safety, digital wellness and pornography. eSafeKids is based in Perth, Western Australia.
eSafeKids provides books and resources to teach children about social and emotional intelligence, resilience, empathy, gender equality, consent, body safety, protective behaviours, cyber safety, digital wellness, media literacy, puberty and pornography.
eSafeKids books can support educators teaching protective behaviours and child abuse prevention education that aligns with the Western Australian Curriculum, Australian Curriculum, Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and National Quality Framework: National Quality Standards (NQS).
