“Instagram’s Jaw-Dropping Teen Safety Update: Parents, You Won’t Believe What’s Changed!”

By Familyguide Contributor

Instagram is implementing new measures to enhance the safety of teenage users on the platform.

As of September 16, all accounts belonging to users 18 and under will be automatically configured as private by default.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) has praised this move, stating it’s a significant step towards ensuring the safety of minors. This change was among several safety requests NCOSE had made to Meta in a letter prior to the company’s inclusion in the 2024 Dirty Dozen List.

According to AP News, while these settings will be applied to all teen accounts, 16 and 17-year-olds will have the option to disable them. For users under 16, parental permission will be required to make any changes.

Dawn Hawkins, CEO of NCOSE, commended the changes, saying, “Meta has made a significant stride in protecting minors from potential harm by setting teen accounts to private by default. Instagram has been a primary platform for threats and distribution of sextortion images. We appreciate Meta’s responsiveness to our concerns by ensuring the highest safety settings for accounts of users 16 and younger.”

Private accounts on Instagram prevent strangers and potential predators from messaging children. Another feature of these accounts is “Sleep Mode,” which mutes all notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Antigone Davis, Meta’s head of global safety, explained, “This update standardizes and simplifies much of our previous work, extending these protections to all teens. It provides a set of pre-configured safeguards.”

The update also includes stricter age verification measures to prevent teens from misrepresenting their age. Davis acknowledged, “We’re aware some teens might attempt to circumvent these protections by lying about their age. That’s why we’re developing new age verification methods.”

Parental controls are also being enhanced. One new feature will allow parents to see who their child has messaged, without revealing the message content. Parents will also be able to view their children’s search history topics.

Familyguide previously reported on NCOSE’s 2024 Dirty Dozen List:

“The Dirty Dozen List is an annual campaign that identifies twelve mainstream entities involved in facilitating, enabling, or profiting from sexual abuse and exploitation,” according to NCOSE.

“Since its launch in 2013, the Dirty Dozen List has motivated thousands of individuals to call for changes in problematic policies and practices at corporations, government agencies, and organizations. This campaign has led to significant improvements at Google, Netflix, TikTok, Hilton Worldwide, Verizon, Walmart, US Department of Defense, and many others,” NCOSE states…

The Communications Decency Act, Section 230, is an unusual inclusion on NCOSE’s annual list, differing from the typical tech companies usually featured.

NCOSE explains that the law “was intended to encourage tech companies to actively protect younger users from harmful content. Congress added Section 230 to the CDA to create an environment where platforms could grow and innovate without fear of liability for content posted by third parties.”