Instagram has today announced a slew of new safety features that aim to guard its young users against harmful contact, especially from adult-owned accounts that can potentially pose a threat. The Facebook-owned platform has lately given a major push to the safety, security, and mental health aspect of its users, especially those in their teens. The most recent change was a slider-based tool that allowed users to specify the level of sensitive content that they want to see in the Explore section — the destination where Instagram exposes users to new and potentially interesting content.
This was preceded by the addition of a new toggle that allows users to hide the like counts for their own as well as posts from other people. This was done in a bid to ensure that users focus more on the experience, rather than worrying about the number of likes logged by their social media posts. A couple of months ago, Instagram also added a neat customization tool that allows users to add pronouns to their profile, taking another step towards promoting inclusivity. To keep interactions safe on the platform, Instagram offered user-customizable language filters for Direct Message (DM) requests to keep abusive locution at bay and prevent harassment.
Today, Instagram is adding more muscle to its commitment towards creating a safer platform for young users by making a trio of major changes. For users under the age of 16 (18 in some regions), Instagram will default their account to private status. As for users in the same age bracket with an existing public account, Instagram will show them a notification that recounts the benefits of a private account. However, it is ultimately in the hands of users whether they want to keep their account private, or if they want to switch to the public mode. Instagram says that in a test conducted on the target demographic, eight out of ten young users actually opted for a private profile. For those unaware, a private profile prevents others from seeing the posts, Stories, and Reels shared by the account, unless their follow request is approved. This ensures that only people from within a safe circle can see and share content from a private account.
Instagram Wants To Protect Its Most Valuable User Base
The second policy change is proactively preventing contact with accounts that have a track record of undesirable or suspicious behavior. Instagram says it is implementing a new system that automatically identifies such adult-owned accounts (with a record of being blocked or reported in the past) and stops them from getting in touch with young users. Instagram will hide accounts of young users from appearing in Explore, Reels, or the “Accounts Suggested For You” section for such suspicious adult profiles. Even if a malicious party manages to get a hold of the username, they still won’t be able to follow the account of young users, neither will they be able to see posts or comments from that account.
Instagram is rolling out the aforementioned changes for users in Australia, France, Japan, the UK and the US, followed by more regions in the foreseeable future. The company will also prevent advertisers from showing targeted ads (based on interests and activity logs) to users under the age of 18. Advertisers can now only use metrics such as age, location, and gender to show targeted ads to young users. In addition to Instagram, Facebook and Messenger are also implementing the same advertising policy for users across the globe.
Source: Instagram