Instagram has announced new restrictions for users under the age of 18. Under the scope of the application called “teen accounts”, underage users’ access to content and interaction with other users will be limited.
The new accounts went into effect in the US, Canada, UK and Australia from September 17.
On the website of Meta, the owner of Instagram According to the description The new accounts will come into force in the European Union towards the end of 2024.
BBC TurkishSpeaking to , Meta officials said that “youth accounts” will be used in Turkey, along with other countries, starting in January.
Meta’s statement said the new app brings “built-in protections for teens that restrict who can contact them and what content they see.”
According to the statement, accounts of users under the age of 18 will automatically be converted to a “teen account” and users under the age of 16 will need to link their accounts to a parent’s account to remove these restrictions.
WHAT MEASURES HAVE BEEN IMPOSED?
As part of the new measures, the accounts of “young account” users will automatically be private, so only followers they accept will be able to see and interact with the content they share.
Likewise, users under the age of 18 will only be able to message people they follow.
With this feature, Instagram will also filter content that teens may encounter in the Explore and Reels areas, so that this age group will be less exposed to “sensitive content” such as violent content or cosmetic product ads.
“Youth accounts” will also issue time warnings to users under the age of 18. In this context, users who exceed 60 minutes per day will be sent notifications telling them to exit the application.
Accounts under the age of 18 will also enter “sleep mode” between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. During this time, notifications will be muted and messages will be auto-replied.
Parents of underage users will be able to monitor their accounts, manage their children’s settings, or allow them to manage them themselves, and see what content their children have selected for their titles.
Parents will also be able to see which users their children have messaged with in the last week, but will not be able to access the content of the messages.
Under Instagram’s new rules, parents will be able to determine how long their children use the app and block them from accessing Instagram during certain hours.
HOW WILL THE RULES BE APPLIED?
Meta said in a statement about the new restrictions that it “has developed new technologies to proactively detect accounts belonging to teenagers.”
It was stated that thanks to these technologies, teenagers who register on the platform with an adult birth date will be detected and their accounts will be converted to restricted accounts.
Meta announced that the conversion process will begin in the US in early 2025.
Initially, accounts of users identified as under 18 in the US, Canada, UK and Australia will be converted to “teenager accounts” within 60 days, starting from September 17.