Instagram is rolling out further measures to help protect teenagers and children from seeing inappropriate content. In what is deemed a very welcome move, teens using Instagram will now only be able to view content that abides by a PG-13 cinema rating.
The new measures, introduced by parent company Meta, will prohibit young users’ access to harmful content, including violence, by default. It means that children using teen-specific accounts will only see photos and videos on the platform similar to what they’d see in a PG-13 movie and the platform hopes it will stop children from sharing violence or recordings of fights and bullying.
Users won’t be able to change their settings without their parental permission.
Anyone under 18 who signs up for Instagram will be automatically placed into a restrictive teen account unless a parent or guardian gives them permission to opt out. The teen accounts will be set to private by default, have usage restrictions on them and will filter out damaging posts.
Young users will also no longer be able to follow accounts that regularly share “age-inappropriate content”.
If youths already follow these accounts, they’ll no longer be able to access or interact with their profiles. Age-inappropriate accounts also won’t be able to follow teens, send them private messages or comment on their posts. The PG-13 update will also apply to AI chats and experiences targeted to teens.
Meta says the new measures are the most significant since teen accounts were introduced last year. Further calls for TikTok and Snapchat to do the same have been raised.
Rani Govender, Policy Manager for Child Safety Online at the NSPCC, said: “Meta’s announcement is a welcome step in ensuring they fulfil their safety duties to children under the regulation. Now, they must ensure this delivers meaningful change for children in practice.
“Crucially, this will require them to effectively identify children’s accounts so that they are not exposed to content that’s inappropriate, misleading and harmful.”
