Instagram Launches New Updates for Safety & Privacy of Young People

With the digital world getting more developed, young people nowadays have become inseparable from it. Social media is a part of lifestyle now and making it safer for young ones is a tough task. For the same, Instagram launched new updates on July 27, 2021, to provide them with more safety and privacy.

Many teens receive DMs and comments from strangers which might affect them in a way you don’t even know. It was important to strike a balance so that the young ones can have fun and keep their accounts public without any worries. So, that’s why Instagram came up with three new changes.

As per Instagram Blog, they are:

• “Defaulting young people into private accounts.
• Making it harder for potentially suspicious accounts to find young people.
• Limiting the options advertisers have to reach young people with ads.”

Here’s Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram clarifying the above-mentioned points:

Now, it’s time to highlight the important details!

Defaulting People Under 16 Into Private Accounts

According to Instagram Blog, “starting this week, everyone who is under 16 years old (or under 18 in certain countries) will be defaulted into a private account when they join Instagram.”

“For young people who already have a public account on Instagram, we’ll show them a notification highlighting the benefits of a private account and explaining how to change their privacy settings. We’ll still give young people the choice to switch to a public account or keep their current account public if they wish”, further stated by Instagram Blog.

Stopping Unwanted Contact

Instagram Blog stated, “We’ve developed new technology that will allow us to find accounts that have shown potentially suspicious behavior and stop those accounts from interacting with young people’s accounts. By “potentially suspicious behavior”, we mean accounts belonging to adults that may have recently been blocked or reported by a young person for example.

Using this technology, now we won’t show young people’s accounts in Explore, Reels or ‘Accounts Suggested For You’ to these adults. If they find young people’s accounts by searching for their usernames, they won’t be able to follow them. They also won’t be able to see comments from young people on other people’s posts, nor will they be able to leave comments on young people’s posts. We’ll continue to look for additional places where we can apply this technology.”

Changing How Advertisers Can Reach Young People

“Starting in a few weeks, we’ll only allow advertisers to target ads to people under 18 (or older in certain countries) based on their age, gender and location. This means that previously available targeting options, like those based on interests or on their activity on other apps and websites, will no longer be available to advertisers. These changes will be global and apply to Instagram, Facebook and Messenger”, revealed Instagram Blog.

Instagram Blog also points out that Instagram plans to notify young people when they turn 18 “about targeting options that advertisers can now use to reach them and the tools we provide to them to control their ad experience.”

Jezz Chung is here to guide you with her 3 quicks tips for privacy and safety on Instagram:

For more information on the new updates regarding the safety and privacy of teens, tap HERE!