Instagram is upping their safety measures around teenage users.
The social media platform plans to restrict the ability of adults to contact teens who do not follow them. It’s their way of protecting younger users.
Under the new rules, adults will be blocked from sending a direct message (DM) to any Instagram user under 18 if that account does not already follow them.
The new safety measures will also bring about safety alerts sent to users under the age of 18 to encourage them to be cautious in conversation with adults they’re already connected to or following.
In addition, Instagram said it was making it more difficult for adults to find and follow teenagers on the site by restricting teen accounts from appearing in the Suggested Users section of the app and hiding content from teen users in both Reels and Explore.
Younger users are also being encouraged to make their accounts private, while Instagram said it was developing new artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to help it better identify the real age of younger users after it acknowledged that some young people were lying about how old they were in order to access the platform.
The Facebook-owned site’s terms of service require all users to be at least 13 years old to have an account.
“Protecting young people on Instagram is important to us,” the social media giant said.
“Today, we’re sharing updates on new features and resources as part of our ongoing efforts keep our youngest community members safe.”
“We believe that everyone should have a safe and supportive experience on Instagram. These updates are a part of our ongoing efforts to protect young people, and our specialist teams will continue to invest in new interventions that further limit inappropriate interactions between adults and teens.”
Responding to Instagram’s announcement, Andy Burrows, head of child safety online policy at the NSPCC said: “Instagram’s decision to stop adults contacting children who don’t follow them is welcome, correcting a dangerous design decision that should never have been allowed in the first place.”
“There are consistently more grooming offences on Instagram than any other platform. Our latest data shows it is the platform of choice for offenders in more than a third of instances where they target children for sexual abuse.”
🙅♀ Making it harder for adults who’ve shown potentially suspicious behavior to find and follow teens
📝 Sharing more safety tips with parents
Learn more about our work to protect young people on Instagram👇https://t.co/Fac4mXkINz
— Instagram (@instagram) March 16, 2021
Photo| iStock
Editorial| Kayla
