Instagram Announces New Safety Features Amidst Claims the Product is Harming Minors

Publish Date : 09/18/2024

Instagram announced changes to allegedly improve safety for users under 18 as concerns about children’s online safety grow. New features will automatically limit who can see teen accounts and what teens can view on the platform. Teens under 16 will need parental consent to adjust these settings. They can only receive messages from people they follow, and will have the most restrictive settings for sensitive content. Instagram will alert teens when they’ve been online for an hour and mute notifications from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Parents will also have supervision tools, such as seeing who their child messages and setting time limits. The changes begin immediately for new users, with current teen users being notified soon. The updates will roll out globally by 2025. These actions follow concerns from parents, lawmakers, and a lawsuit accusing Instagram of harming teens’ mental health and collecting data from minors.