While social media is being pointed out as a harmful substance that adversely affects youth mental health, Instagram has unveiled a massive youth protection measure.
Instagram said on the 17th that it will convert the account of users under the age of 18 into a “private” account by default within the next few weeks. This means that it will be impossible for the account owner, the teenager, to see the youth’s posts or make a conversation with the other person who did not authorize the “follow.”
Instagram also decided to suspend notification of underage accounts from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. to encourage teenagers to sleep. A protective feature will also be added to allow parents to check the accounts of the teenagers they sent and received recent messages. Instagram also strictly restricts content that is exposed to teenage accounts. It aims to more meticulously block harmful content such as nude shots and self-harm. All these changes will be added as a package to the so-called “teen account” youth account policy.
These basic settings can be arbitrarily modified for adolescents over the age of 16, but adolescents under the age of 16 need to obtain parental consent to change the settings. Instagram plans to apply the teenage account policy to the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia over the next two months, and gradually introduce it in other countries from January next year.
The change is considered to be the largest and most extensive youth protection measures that social media has ever taken. It is interpreted that social media eventually gave in amid mounting sanctions, such as U.S. General Secretary Vivek Murthy’s insistence on putting warning labels similar to cigarettes on social media in June and restricting minors’ use of social media in some U.S. states.
“It is still unclear how effective the new changes to Instagram will be,” the New York Times said. “Meta has promised to prevent and protect content harmful to adolescents on Facebook in the past, but all have not been successful.” It is also pointed out that minors who are currently active as so-called “influencer” on Instagram may be more opposed to their account going private. “We know that the new safety measures can affect Meta’s profits and the popularity of the app,” said Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram. “But I hope they will take risks and move us forward.”
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
