Instagram Adds Parental Control

Instagram has launched new parental control tools after facing criticism from regulators and the public about the harms that the platform causes to young people.

The new tool is part of an effort to protect teenagers created by the Instagram head, Adam Mosseri in December. The pledge was made in October after whistleblowers claimed that Facebook prioritized profits over the well-being of users, especially teenagers.

The supervision tool will be launched as part of a new Family Centre that includes an education centre that teaches parents how to talk to teens on social media, the company said in a blog post-Wednesday. Meta plans to eventually expand the Family Center to a platform that allows parents to manage teenage social media activities in all Meta apps.

New Instagram updates are already available in the United States and set to be rolled out globally, allowing teens to invite parents or guardians to supervise their accounts. 

Instagram, which states that users need to be 13 years of age or older, has been accused of poor age verification tools and recommended algorithms that can trick young people into consuming harmful content. After the backlash, Instagram stopped developing another product with similar controls for users under the age of 13.

With the new tool, parents can see how much time their child spends on Instagram, who they're following, and when they're reporting an account to content moderators. In a future release, parents will be able to set limits when teens can't use Instagram during class hours or before bedtime.