Instagram Tightens Parental Controls, But Concerns Remain
Instagram is rolling out new parental supervision tools aimed at giving parents more control over their teens’ usage, with features set to launch in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia within the next two months, CNN reports.
These changes, which will then be rolled out to other countries later this year and next, come amid growing concerns over the platform’s impact on young users.
The new features include the ability for parents to:
• View recent messaging activity: Parents can see who their teens have been messaging on the platform.
• Set daily time limits: Parents can set maximum usage time for their teens each day.
• Block usage during specific times: Parents can block Instagram access during certain hours, such as at night.
• View content topics: Parents can see what topics their teens have chosen to view content from.
These changes were developed in consultation with the platform’s Safety Advisory Council, a group of independent online safety experts and organizations, youth advisors, as well as feedback from teens, parents, and government officials.
However, Meta’s reliance on signals like adult birthdates and the number of supervised accounts raises concerns about the effectiveness of the new controls. The company acknowledges that it has no way to verify if the person monitoring a teen’s account is actually their parent. This vulnerability could be exploited by individuals with malicious intent, potentially posing a greater risk to teens.
Furthermore, Meta has faced criticism for failing to effectively prevent teens from lying about their age to bypass safety restrictions. To address this, the company says it is implementing artificial intelligence technology to identify teen accounts that may have falsely listed an adult birthdate.
