FOX Business' Madison Alworth has more information on “Mornings with Maria.”
Instagram said Tuesday it is launching new privacy and parental controls for teens on its platform to address growing concerns about the negative effects of social media and give parents more control over their children's online experience.
Instagram and Facebook Parent Meta The company said new teen accounts will be automatically set to private, will have to approve new followers, and will have new restrictions on messaging, sensitive content and user interactions, as well as new time limit reminders and a sleep mode feature.
Antigone Davis, Meta's head of global safety, spoke about the new Teen Account and related safety features in an exclusive interview with FOX Business Network's Madison Alworth.
“This is a real game-changer for parents,” Davis said in an interview. “With this release, tens of millions of teens will have a whole new experience on the platform, where if you're under 18, you'll be automatically protected, and if you're under 16, you'll need parental permission to change settings.”
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A teen's perspective on Instagram's notification about protecting teen accounts. (Courtesy of Meta/Fox News)
Davis said the three Parents' biggest concerns This includes who their teens are connecting with on the platform, what content they're watching, how much time they're spending on their phone, etc. Parents will also be able to see who their kids have been talking to in the past seven days, although the content of those messages won't be visible to parents.
“I think one of the things to understand is that there's another person on the other end of the message, so it really raises privacy concerns because we're not just sharing a teen's content, we're actually sharing someone else's content,” Davis said.
| Ticker | safety | last | change | change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta | Meta Platforms, Inc. | 535.26 | +1.98 |
+0.37% |
She noted that parents can use the tool to talk to their children if they receive a large number of messages or messages outside of times when they are allowed to use the app.
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An overview of parental controls for teens in the Instagram teen account experience. (Courtesy of Meta/Fox News)
Davis said teen Instagram accounts should be managed by parents. Daily time limit When it comes to Instagram use, you can block them from using the platform at night or at certain times of the day, and you can view the content and topics your teen is engaging with on the platform.
“Teens are developing what are called executive functioning skills – the skills that allow them to regulate their own behavior – and they're still developing and it's part of the process of teens becoming adults. What we wanted to do is give them these reminders and encourage them to use their own skills to self-regulate,” she explained.
“But parents know when their child might not be able to actually do it. And by involving the parent through permission settings, it really encourages the parent to step in and help if the child can't do it or is having difficulty doing it. The parent can set those boundaries for their child,” Davis added.
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A view of the teen explore feature in Instagram's new teen account experience. (Provided by Meta)
the current Instagram teen users The new teen account format will be rolled out to residents of the US, UK, Canada and Australia over the next 60 days. The feature will be available in the European Union later this year, with users in other parts of the world gaining access to teen accounts in January.
Meta also mentioned in its announcement that Teen Accounts will be rolling out to both companies' other platforms next year, meaning Facebook and Threads users could soon have a similar experience.
“We expect some people will not like these protections. In fact, they may spend less time on the platform. They may change their behavior. We may see teens lie to get around these protections,” Davis explained, adding that Meta will prompt them to verify their age if they try to register as an adult or change their age to get around the protections.
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Alworth is Senate Passes Child Online Safety ActA bill under consideration in the House of Representatives would increase regulation of social media platforms, and he asked whether the launch of Instagram's teen accounts was related to the bill's progress.
“This implementation was designed to address parents' concerns, particularly their biggest concerns, and specifically address those concerns,” Davis said. “To the extent that policymakers listen to parents, this change should answer many of those concerns.”
