META has announced the launch of Instagram’s Teen Accounts in Singapore today, which pushes for limitations on content access and interactions, following the initial announcement of the platform in September last year.
Singaporean teenagers over 13 and under 18-years-old will be automatically placed into the Teen Accounts within the following months with those under 16 only allowed to change these settings with parental permission, according to Meta.
The Teen Accounts come with built-in protections that limit the content minors can access and who can contact them on the platform, Channel News Asia reported.
“We know parents want to feel confident that their teens can use social media to connect with their friends and explore their interests, without having to worry about unsafe or inappropriate experiences,“ Instagram and Threads global director of public policy Tara Hopkins was quoted as saying.
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Meta has also introduced additional parental supervision allowing parents to check who their teenage child is in contact with on the app.
The Meta-owned application will be private by default and the teenagers can only be tagged by those they follow and offensive language will be filtered out.
Furthermore, Teen Accounts will limit users’ screen time, notifying them to leave the app after 60 minutes per day, in addition to the app’s new Sleep Mode which mutes notifications from 10pm until 7am daily.
Should teenagers try to sign up for a new account with an adult birth date, Meta has come up with “safeguards” to prevent such incidents.
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Teenage users are required to verify their age by either uploading their identification details, record a self-video or ask mutual friends to confirm their age.
The platform said the safeguards are being tested to “make sure teens and adults are in the right experience for their age group”, as quoted.
