Meta to expand Instagram Teen Accounts in India
Meta on Tuesday announced the expansion of Instagram Teen Accounts to India
- NEW DELHI — Reinforcing
its commitment to the online safety of young users, Meta on Tuesday announced
the expansion of Instagram Teen Accounts to India.
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- The Teen accounts, to be rolled out in a phased manner in
the country, are designed to create a more secure and age-appropriate space for
teenagers online.
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- With built-in protections, Teen Accounts limit unwanted
interactions, enhance privacy settings, and provide parents with greater
oversight, ensuring a safer social media experience for young users. It also
addresses concerns like cyberbullying, exposure to harmful content, and privacy
risks.
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- “At Meta, creating a safer and more responsible digital
environment is a top priority. With the expansion of Instagram Teen Accounts to
India, we are strengthening protections, enhancing content controls, and
empowering parents while ensuring a safer experience for teenagers,"
Natasha Jog, Director, Public Policy India, Instagram.
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- A key feature of Teen Accounts is that by default, all
accounts are set to private, meaning they must approve new followers.
Non-followers cannot view or interact with their content. This applies to all
users under 16 (both existing and new) and those under 18 when signing up, said
the company.
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- Teenagers will also have the strictest messaging settings
enabled, allowing them to receive messages only from people they follow or are
already connected with.
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- They will also be automatically placed in the most
restrictive setting, limiting their exposure to sensitive content, such as
depictions of physical fights or promotions of cosmetic procedures, in areas
like Explore and Reels.
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- Further, teenagers can only be tagged or mentioned by people
they follow. In addition, the strictest version of the anti-bullying feature,
Hidden Words, will be enabled by default to filter out offensive language in
comments and DM requests, the company said.
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- The teenagers will also receive notifications prompting them
to exit the app after 60 minutes of daily usage. Sleep mode will be enabled
from 10 pm to 7 am, muting notifications and automatically sending replies to
DMs overnight.
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- Notably, Teen Accounts also provides supervision tools for
parents, which they can use to monitor and manage their teenager’s experience,
including approving changes to safety settings and setting daily screen-time
limits.
