HEAT ALERT

Heat advisory issued for the Hudson Valley through 8 p.m. Wednesday. Stay safe.

Instagram makes teen accounts private as pressure mounts on the app to protect children

The teen accounts will be private by default. Private messages are restricted so teens can only receive them from people they follow or are already connected to.

Noelle Lilley

Sep 17, 2024, 1:58 PM

Updated 313 days ago

Share:

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 1:50
Loaded: 21.87%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 1:50
 
1x
Instagram has new rules for teenagers.
The goal is to keep them safe online after years of recent research, including from parent company Meta’s own studies, that found the platform was harmful to young people’s mental health.
Accounts under the age of 18 will now automatically:
  • Be made private
  • Have sensitive content hidden
  • Only be able to receive messages from people they follow or are already connected to
  • Have sensitive content restricted
  • Be enabled into sleep mode between 10PM and 7AM
  • Receive time limit reminders
Kids who are under the age of 16 will need their parent’s permission to turn off any of these settings.
Olena Zhadko teaches future educators about online learning at The Center for Teaching and Learning at Lehman College, and she says the best way to keep kids safe online is to create a safe space for them to open up.
“Have a conversation with your teen about, OK, well, you follow X, Y, and Z. Tell me why you follow them. Tell me how it makes you feel,” said Zhadko. “It's not about trying to control your teen's behavior, but really asking open-ended questions.”
In 2021, a former data scientist at Facebook, Frances Haugen, testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee that Instagram had a negative impact on teens' mental health, especially young girls. Haugen also leaked several internal company studies that showed officials were aware of these findings.



Logo

Looks like your ad blocker is on.

×

We rely on ads to keep creating quality content for you to enjoy.

Please support News12 by disabling your ad blocker.

Continue without disabling.

Choose your Ad Blocker

  • Adblock Plus
  • Adblock
  • Adguard
  • Ad Remover
  • Brave
  • Ghostery
  • uBlock Origin
  • uBlock
  • UltraBlock
  • Other
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock Plus icon
  2. Click the large blue toggle for this website
  3. Click refresh
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock icon
  2. Under "Pause on this site" click "Always"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Adguard icon
  2. Click on the large green toggle for this website
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ad Remover icon
  2. Click "Disable on This Website"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the orange lion icon
  2. Click the toggle on the top right, shifting from "Up" to "Down"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ghostery icon
  2. Click the "Anti-Tracking" shield so it says "Off"
  3. Click the "Ad-Blocking" stop sign so it says "Off"
  4. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock Origin icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the UltraBlock icon
  2. Check the "Disable UltraBlock" checkbox
  1. Please disable your Ad Blocker
  2. Disable any DNS blocking tools such as AdGuardDNS or NextDNS
  3. Disable any privacy or tracking protection extensions such as Firefox Enhanced Tracking Protection or DuckDuckGo Privacy.

If the prompt is still appearing, please disable any tools or services you are using that block internet ads (e.g. DNS Servers, tracking protection or privacy extensions).