In response to growing political pressure, Instagram is introducing special user accounts for minors. These offer increased privacy protection and parents better control options, the online network of the Internet group Meta announced. The innovations will initially be introduced in North America, Great Britain and Australia. Germany and the European Union will follow by the end of the year and the remaining countries at the beginning of 2025.
The accounts of all users under 18 will automatically be converted into “teen accounts,” it said. These are set to private by default. Teenagers can only be contacted by other users and tagged and mentioned in content if they already follow them. When viewing sensitive content, the most restrictive setting is automatically selected. Users under 16 also need parental consent to change the default settings. In addition, they can use the “parental supervision” function to restrict access to Instagram. Regardless of this, teenagers are reminded to close the app after 60 minutes of use per day. Notifications are also automatically muted at night.
In the USA alone, hundreds of legal proceedings are underway against Instagram, Tiktok and YouTube because these online networks are addictive to minors. Studies have also shown that they promote depression, anxiety and learning problems. Two laws have therefore been introduced in the US Congress to improve the protection of minors on the Internet. In the EU, the Digital Services Act (DSA) is intended to ensure this.