Instagram boosts safety features for teenage users
Instagram now prevents adults from sending messages to people under 18 who don’t follow them, and is urging teens to be more cautious about interactions in DMs
- Adults aren’t able to message teens who don’t already follow them on the app
- Instagram has also made it more difficult for adults to find and follow teenagers
- It’s working to make sure teens don’t lie about their age to set up an account
- Its terms of service require all users to be at least 13 years old to have an account
Instagram has restricted the ability of adults to contact teenagers who do not follow them on the platform in a move to better protect its younger users.
Under the new rules, adults are blocked from sending a direct message (DM) to any Instagram user under 18 who doesn’t follow them.
When adults try to do so, they’ll see the message: ‘You can’t message this account unless they follow you.’
Instagram has also made it more difficult for adults to find and follow teenagers in parts of the app like Explore and Reels.
It’s sending safety alerts to users aged under 18 to encourage them to be cautious in conversation with adults they are already connected to but have ‘exhibited potentially suspicious behaviour’.
This could be sending a large amount of friend or message requests to teenage users, for example.
All these features are being rolled out from today. Instagram is also now developing new artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to help it better identify the real age of younger users, it also revealed.
Adults will be blocked from sending a direct message (DM) to any Instagram user under 18 who doesn’t follow them. They’ll see a message: ‘You can’t message this account unless they follow you’
The Facebook-owned photo sharing app acknowledged that some young people were lying about how old they were in order to access the platform.
Its terms of service require all users to be at least 13 years old to have an account.
‘While many people are honest about their age, we know that young people can lie about their date of birth,’ Instagram said in a blog post on Tuesday.
‘We want to do more to stop this from happening, but verifying people’s age online is complex and something many in our industry are grappling with.
‘To address this challenge, we’re developing new artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to help us keep teens safer and apply new age-appropriate features.’
Instagram revealed new features and resources as part of ‘ongoing efforts to keep our youngest community members safe’
The online safety of teenagers using social media has been a key issue for technology firms for some time.
Companies are under continued scrutiny in the wake of repeated warnings from industry experts and campaigners over the dangers for young people online.
The government is set to introduce an Online Safety Bill later this year, which will enforce stricter regulation around protecting young people online and harsh punishments for platforms found to be failing to meet a duty of care.
Instagram said it believes ‘everyone should have a safe and supportive experience’ on the platform.
‘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,’ it said.
‘Protecting young people on Instagram is important to us,’ the social media giant said.
‘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.
