Instagram will make accounts for teens private by default

The Instagram account is changing, especially for teens. The social media platform will be private for teens and limit advertisements. Read to know how Instagram is going to be safer for teens under the age of 16.

Your teen’s Instagram account will now be safer

The social media platform will ensure that everyone under the age of 16 will have a private account by default. Additionally, it will also change the way advertisers can reach younger audiences. These new measures will reduce targeting youngsters. However, if teens already have a public account, Instagram will not force them to make it private. However, it will notify the benefits of a private account in addition to showing how to make it private.

Another big hurrah is that Instagram will stop ‘suspicious accounts’ from interacting with people under 16. This is a huge step in avoiding grooming and child predators from interacting with younger audiences. “We’ve developed a new technology that allows us to find accounts that have shown potentially suspicious behavior. And, to stop those accounts from interacting with young people’s accounts. By potentially suspicious behavior, we mean accounts that belong to adults that may have recently been blocked or reported by a young person,” said Karina Newton, the public policy director for Instagram.

The platform will filter ads through three criteria- age, location, and gender. “We’re now taking this more precautionary approach on how advertisers can reach young people with ads. When people turn 18, we’ll send them a notification about targeting options that advertisers now can use to reach them and how they can control their ads experiences through ads preferences,” said newton. Additionally, these changes will be global and will apply to not just Instagram but also Facebook and Facebook messenger.

Why is a private account better for teens?

A private social media account has several perks. Your content will only be visible to those you know and, you won’t get comments from strangers. This also includes the hashtags you use. Additionally, your pictures and comments will not be visible on third-party websites. As per Instagram’s data, eight out of ten teens accepted the default private account settings while signing up. In addition to this, if a person is suspected of suspicious activity, they can’t interact with a teen’s account. They will not be banned from the platform.  Instagram is excited to use this technology to its fullest.

“We have a number of protective measures that we have to help identify bad actors. We also announced earlier this year that we will not let unconnected adults from connecting with minors over messaging. And so, this builds upon that,” added Newton. These changes will soon be applicable in Australia, UK, France, US, and Japan before expanding to all other places.“We’re evaluating these signals regularly, and additional accounts created by these suspicious users. These aren’t people who have necessarily broken our rules, they’re just engaged in some kind of activity that makes us want to out of an abundance of caution create a buffer between them and young people’s accounts,” she added.