Mothers, fathers who have children do not need to worry about embarrassment because Instagram has taken care of your children.
Instragram reported on Tuesday that it will be more assertive about the types of content recommended to teens in photo -sharing apps and will push them to different content if they think about one topic for a long time.
The social media service announced many changes for its teen users with Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, testifying at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday on protecting children online.
Instagram and its parent company Meta Platforms Inc have been monitored on how their services are believed to be causing mental health, body image and online safety problems for younger users.
Adam Mosseri also said Instagram is turning off the ability for users to tag and mention teens who don’t follow them on its app and starting January, teen Instagram users can delete their content in bulk including old likes and comments.
He added that Instagram is exploring about controls to limit potentially harmful and sensitive material suggested to teens through search functions, hashtags, Reels short videos and ‘Suggested Accounts’ features including the ‘Explore’ page.
In March next year Instagram will launch a monitoring tool for parents as well as guardians to see how much time teens spend on the app and set a time limit.
The move follows a Wall Street Journal report that said in an internal document leaked by former Facebook employee Frances Haugen, it showed the company knew Instagram could have harmful mental health effects on teenage girls for example on their views on body image so attorneys and lawmakers- state law also raises concerns about child-focused applications.
Last month, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. attorneys opened an investigation into Facebook for promoting Instagram to children despite potential dangers.
