Making Instagram safer for teens

At least some social media fanatics will not deny it if you tell them that Instagram has more followers than Facebook. The social media platform with its world-famous filters, which help you make your photographs look prettier, has made people go gaga over it. This, in turn, leads to the question of teenagers and adolescents being affected by social media. In the wake of various allegations against Facebook and its products for not creating enough tools and regulations to ensure that kids below 13 years of age do not get to the platform, Instagram has created a portal called the Well Being site. The site now gets an upgrade with a parent-oriented section that guides parents through the app and helps them talk about it with their teens.

The site basically just walks parents through privacy settings and content controls, like how to make an account public or private or how to block accounts. The section covers a basic introduction to the photo and video sharing app and introduces parents to the safety features that they (and perhaps their child) may not be aware of. These points cover privacy features like private vs. public profiles, and a timer system that helps teens and their parents keep track of how long they have stayed on the app and prompts them to take a break if they have exceeded a preset limit.

The app also encourages parents to ask their children about their mental well-being as a result of online comments. For example, how well do they know their followers and how they decide what to post on various subjects.  

The company also suggests some teen accounts that parents could suggest to their kids as positive role models and also offers some prompts to get the instagram conversation started. Even though none of these features are new, the rollout of the website is expected to be an effective way to help parents navigate and understand the virtual world their children are in contact with. It is also good to see Instagram acknowledge the deep-rooted effects the platform has on kids, both positive and negative.