INSTAGRAM plans to roll out a new feature in March of 2022 that will allow parents a sneak peek into their children’s Instagram activity.
The announcement was released by the service’s head, Adam Mosseri, in an Instagram blog post early December 7.
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The new feature will notify parents and guardians of how much time their teenagers spend on Instagram.
They will also be able to set time limits to control their kids’ social media usage, which studies have shown can be very beneficial for mental health.
Furthermore, parents will also be able to get notifications whenever their child reports someone on the popular platform.
Mosseri wrote in the blog post that the company is committed to keeping today’s young people safe while using the app.
He added that Instagram “will continue doing research, consulting with experts, and testing new concepts to better serve teens.”
Mosseri stated in the post that the new changes have been in the works for quite a while.
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Alongside the new parental control features, Instagram also plans to introduce a new educational hub for both parents and guardians that will include “additional resources, product tutorials, and tips from experts.”
This new announcement comes as Instagram, which is a subsidiary of Meta, currently faces serious public scrutiny after internal documents were leaked by Frances Haugen.
Haugen, who used to work for Facebook before it rebranded to Meta, released the documents earlier this year.
The documents specifically illuminate how Instagram has been aware of its detrimental effects on its female teen demographic — specifically where body image issues are concerned.
Haugen publicly spoke on the matter back in October, when she testified before the United States Senate Commerce Committee’s Sub-Committee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security.
“It’s just like cigarettes,” Haugen said during the hearing. “Teenagers don’t have good self-regulation. They say explicitly, ‘I feel bad when I use Instagram, and yet I can’t stop.’ ”
Mosseri is due to testify before Congress later this week and is expected to discuss Instagram’s impact on children’s and teens’ mental health.
In addition to the Instagram investigation, Meta is facing an FTC antitrust lawsuit regarding its frequent purchasing of smaller competitors.
Whistleblower Frances Haugen tells her experience working at Facebook
In other news, Elon Musk has announced he plans to implant the world’s first brain chip in a human in 2022.
iPhone owners are being urged to change their settings in order to protect their texts from snoopers.
And Google has officially released a new privacy feature that could erase important photos forever.
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