WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Meta has announced the introduction of Instagram Teen Accounts to automatically place teens in built-in protections and reassure parents that teens are having safe experiences.
Teen Accounts will limit who can contact the account holders and the content they see, and also provide new ways for teens to explore their interests.
'We'll automatically place teens into Teen Accounts, and teens under 16 will need a parent's permission to change any of these settings to be less strict,' said the multinational technology conglomerate.
'We know parents want to feel confident that their teens can use social media to connect with their friends and explore their interests, without having to worry about unsafe or inappropriate experiences. We understand parents' concerns, and that's why we're reimagining our apps for teens with new Teen Accounts,' Meta said in a blogpost.
Teens will also get access to an exclusive new feature, which lets them select topics they want to see more of in 'Explore', and their recommendations so they can focus on the fun, positive content they like.
With default private accounts, teens need to accept new followers, and people who don't follow them can't see their content or interact with them. This applies to all teens under 16, including those already on Instagram and those signing up, and teens under 18 when they sign up for the app.
Teens will be placed in the strictest messaging settings, so they can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to.
Teens will automatically be placed into the most restrictive setting of Instagram's 'sensitive content control', which limits the type of sensitive content such as content that shows people fighting or promotes cosmetic procedures teens see in places like Explore and Reels.
Teens can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow.
Meta said it will also automatically turn on the most restrictive version of the app's anti-bullying feature, 'Hidden Words', so that offensive words and phrases will be filtered out of teens' comments and DM requests.
Other features include teens getting notifications to leave the app after 60 minutes each day, and sleep mode. Sleep mode will be turned on between 10 PM and 7 AM, which will mute notifications overnight and send auto-replies to DMs.
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