Meta introduces Instagram for teenagers in India: Check safeguard details

In addition to Teen accounts, Meta is bringing an age verification feature to Instagram to ensure that young users do not misrepresent their age

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

Meta has announced that it is expanding its Instagram "Teen Accounts" to India to ensure the online safety of young users. The company said that teen accounts are designed to create a more secure and age-appropriate space for teenagers online. These accounts come with built-in protections such as limitations to unwanted interactions, enhanced privacy settings, parental control, and more.

 

In addition to teen accounts, Meta is bringing an age verification feature to Instagram. Meta said that to ensure that young users do not misrepresent their age, additional verification steps will be required in certain situations—such as when someone attempts to create an account with an adult birthdate.

 

Instagram Teen accounts: Built-in protection features

 

Meta said that the following safeguards are enabled by default for users under the age of 16. Additionally, any adjustments to these restrictive settings will require parental approval.

• Private Accounts: By default, teen accounts are set to private, meaning they must approve new followers, and non-followers cannot view or interact with their content. This applies to all users under 16 (both existing and new) and those under 18 when signing up.
• Messaging Restrictions: Messaging settings on Teen accounts will only allow them to receive messages from people they follow or are already connected with.
• Sensitive Content Control: Meta said that Teen accounts will automatically have the most restrictive setting enabled, limiting their exposure to sensitive content, such as depictions of physical fights or promotions of cosmetic procedures, in areas like Explore and Reels.
• Limited Interactions: Teen accounts can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow. Additionally, the Hidden Words feature will be enabled by default to filter out offensive language in comments and message requests.
• Time Limit Reminders: Teens will receive notifications prompting them to exit the app after 60 minutes of daily usage.
• Sleep Mode: Sleep mode will be enabled from 10 PM to 7 AM, muting notifications and automatically sending replies to messages overnight.

Instagram Teen accounts: Supervision tools for parents

 

Beyond the above-mentioned built-in safety features, Teen accounts on Instagram offer additional tools for supervision by parents. These include:

• Monitoring recent conversations: Parents can see a list of people their teen has messaged in the past seven days (without reading message content).
• Setting daily time limits: Once the set time limit set by parents is reached, the teen will no longer be able to access Instagram.
• Blocking Instagram during specific hours: Parents can restrict Instagram access at night or during designated times with a toggle.