Instagram Unveils New Rules for Young Users

Instagram on Tuesday unveiled promised new rules designed to better protect users under the age of 18:

• Any minors who sign up will have their accounts set to private by default, meaning only their approved followers can see posts, reports the New York Times. This will be phased in to existing accounts.
• Users ages 16 and 17 can opt out of the privacy setting on their own, but younger users need the permission of a parent, per the AP.

• Notifications to minors between 10pm and 7am are now prohibited under a "Sleep Mode" function, per NBC News. Those who send messages to them during this stretch will get automated replies.
• Teens will get a notification after 60 minutes of use encouraging them to close the app. They can bypass it and keep scrolling, but parents have the option to set maximum daily limits. "Our approach really is to give parents control," says Naomi Gleit, an exec at parent company Meta. "We think parents know their teens best, and so I don't think that all of those controls are necessarily right for everyone, but we want to give parents the options to choose what's right for their child."
• Sensitive content—videos of fights, for example—will be limited.
• Instagram says it's working on technology to better catch minors who lie about their age.
• The changes, which come after much public criticism of Instagram and Meta, are "significant," University of Wisconsin pediatrics professor Megan Moreno tells the Times. "They set a higher bar for privacy and confidentiality—and they take some of the burden off the shoulders of teens and their parents." Roughly half of US teens use Instagram at least once a day, according to a Pew survey.

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