Next year, Instagram is set to launch tools to help teens have a better experience on the app and stricter parental controls controls.
Teenagers on the platform will have an option to notify their parents if they decide to report someone on the platform. Said to be launched in March, the feature is also meant as a way for them to signal to their parents that they need to talk about issues in their life.
Another feature the image sharing platform is testing will allow users to delete the photos, videos even comments and likes from their past. The feature is set to be available in January 2022.
Instagram is also expanding their DM safety feature with prohibiting teens from receiving DMs (direct messages) from adults that they don’t follow.
Starting early next year, the feature will also prohibit the ability for adults to tag and mention of teens that do not follow them or to include content from these teen in their Reels Remixes or Guides.
The app is also considering to further limit sensitive contents from reaching teens and making an experience that would detect users who are looking at a single topic for awhile and introduce them to new ones.
The changes comes after CEO, Adam Mosseri made his testimony in the US Senate hearing on the effect the app has on teens.
One of the immediate outcome of the testimony is the “Take A Break” feature which reminds teens to put their device down when they have spent some time scrolling on the app, it is made to taper off exposure for teens.
