With tons of kids continuing to hop on social media, it’s more important than ever for parents and guardians to have tools to keep them safe. After the “Instagram for Kids” idea was quickly shut down, the platform instead turned to ways it can welcome younger users (still 13 and up) with added security features for parents in its long-awaited parents hub, Family Center.
In a new Instagram blog post, the Meta-owned company is sharing all about the hub and additional parental supervision tools on Instagram and in VR (i.e. Quest). The social media platform didn’t just come up with Family Center on its own, it worked with organizations that include Connect Safely and Net Family News to make the hub as robust as possible.
photo: iStock
First and foremost, Family Center boasts an education hub packed with tips, articles and resources from trusted advisers in the industry. You’ll find an “Instagram Guide for Parents & Guardians,” digital learning conversation starters, videos and activities that will help empower young users.
Justin Patchin, Co-founder and Co-director at Cyberbullying Research Center says, “We’re happy to see the new tools Meta is launching to support parents in helping their children navigate the various social apps. Our research shows that regular parental supervision and co-participation is the best way to inoculate kids from the worst aspects of the internet.”
Family Center also provides supervision tools (available in the US, global availability soon) that include being able to view updates on accounts their teens follow and who follows them, notifications for when their teen reports someone and viewing how much time they spend on Instagram. Parents and guardians will also be able to set time limits for platform usage.
photo: Instagram
For now, teens will need to initiate supervision in the app on mobile devices as well as approve if requested––which seems like a bit of a loophole to us parents. Instagram will add the option for parents to request supervision come June.
For VR users, VR parental supervision tools are coming to Quest in a few months. Parents will soon be able to prevent teens 13 and older from accessing inappropriate experiences when Meta expands the functions of its unlock pattern on Quest headsets in April. By May, teens 13+ will be automatically be blocked from downloading IARC rated age-inappropriate apps and a new Parent Dashboard is coming that will link supervision tools to a teen’s account when given consent.
To read in more detail, and start using the Family Center, you can head to the Instagram blog.
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