You’re not alone if your teen has been begging for an Instagram account or already has one despite your safety concerns, which is why Meta recently rolled out Instagram Teen Accounts.
These special accounts are currently only available in some locations and will be introduced around the world early this year.
Teen Accounts automatically provide users ages 13 to 17 with limits on who can contact them and on the content visible to them, according to Meta, the company that owns Instagram. The accounts also automatically turn on Sleep Mode every day from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. During Sleep Mode, notifications are silenced and the user sees a reminder to close the app.
Teens also get a reminder to close Instagram after 60 minutes of use. If teen Instagram users want to lessen these restrictions, they must get a parent’s consent.
But social media experts warn that Meta only released its Teen Accounts the day before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce was slated to consider the Kids Online Safety Act in September.
“In our opinion, that is not a coincidence,” says Marc Berkman, the CEO of the Organization for Social Media Safety, a nonprofit consumer protection organization. “We’ve seen a pattern of social media platforms announcing safety changes right before major legislation is considered, and that implementation gets delayed for a period of months, and then the implementation is not so effective at the end of the day.”
Berkman adds that while some of the changes from measures such as Instagram Teen Accounts can be effective, they “don’t mitigate all of the harms and threats that Instagram poses to teens.”
It’s been widely reported that teens’ social media use increases the risks of cyberbullying, negative mental health effects, suicidal ideation, fraud, drug trafficking, sexting, “sextortion,” sexual predation and harassment and hate speech.
Almost half of teens are cyberbullied at some point. Eighty-one percent of fifth graders have seen hate speech on social media within the last month, Berkman notes at the time of his interview.
“All of these harms are impacting millions of children cumulatively,” Berkman adds. “And so, this is a really urgent public health issue.”
Instagram Teen Accounts may prevent your adolescent from seeing inappropriate content—hiding potentially offensive comments and message requests with what Meta calls the
“strictest Hidden Word settings.”
But Berkman says there are many harms affecting 13- and 14-year-olds specifically, even if those adolescents are only following friends and people they know on Instagram. Excessive use of the app can open the door to fear of missing out, body image issues and comparison to others, who may have edited their photos.
In terms of the effectiveness of Instagram Teen Accounts, Berkman isn’t so sure: “I think it really remains to be seen.”
Others say this is a good first step. Dr. Shannon Bennett, the associate director of the Center for Youth Mental Health at NewYork-Presbyterian, told CNBC she’s glad to see social media companies make some effort, according to a story published by the news outlet this fall.
Berkman says he believes parents should carefully consider each social media app that their teen uses to ensure that it’s an appropriate and safe choice.
“Even though 13 is the age that platforms will say that children are allowed to start using it, it doesn’t necessarily mean that is the safest age for children,” Berkman says. “We encourage families to do the research on each platform and make that assessment for their child.”
He lists alternatives to staying in touch with friends online: SMS texting, for instance. Or teens can safely use a social media platform with parental interventions in place. These include informing the teen of the “full range of harms” that pose a threat to children on social media, setting social media safety rules with the teen and ensuring that safety settings on the teen’s device and apps are set appropriately.
Berkman recommends that parents use third-party safety software such as the Bark app to monitor their teens’ social media and alert parents to “dangerous content.”
While Teen Accounts could be a step in the right direction, Berkman has two suggestions: Delay the age of entry to Instagram and cut down teens’ time of use. Arguably most importantly, put the “social” in social media and talk to your kids.
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