Instagram adds new measures to protect minors when they use its platform. A series of options that are already active in some countries and that will soon reach the rest where the service can be used. With them, both parents and legal guardians and minors themselves can be more relaxed when accessing the social network and interacting with other users.
How to protect minors on Instagram
The protection of minors in social networks has become an issue of great importance for everyone, but especially for parents and guardians. For this reason, the platform has been incorporating new measures and options that allow greater control. In some cases these are done without the user having to intervene and always with the aim of making the use of the social network safer.
Because if you take into account that this type of social platform is accessed not only by young people but also by users of legal age, they are appreciated. Because another problem is that anyone can create a profile with invented data and there we run certain dangers again.
By not having to say who they really are, who is hiding behind the X profile, many take the opportunity to carry out a series of actions that otherwise they would not be able to recognize them. For example, he sent messages of bullying or other types that are also very unpleasant.
More control over who you chat with
One of the important changes that you have introduced has been the one affecting message requests. On Instagram, as well as on Facebook‘s own Messenger application with which they share the chat system, you now enjoy greater context about who is writing to you and other options are added such as individual and batch deletion of messages, or the images and videos will appear blurred until the request is accepted.
These options in themselves already give users, parents and guardians greater peace of mind and control over what type of communications are received and what happens to them. Because now you will see that messages from strangers do not arrive directly to your main inbox but remain in a new section called Message request .
These privacy settings in turn can be adapted to some extent to further reduce this type of conversation, and may even stop receiving them. Either allow only those who have personal data such as your phone number or be a friend of yours on Facebook or you can chat with you.
All are measures that already achieve a fairly successful control to protect children in the use of the platform, but there are more news.
Private accounts by default
Accounts for minors will be private. That, at least, is what Instagram will boost with all those new users who come to the platform. When they go to create their profile, without indicating that they are under 18 years of age , they will be given the default option to create a private account and it will explain its benefits.
Likewise, in case they do not do it in that first start, with the passage of time they will remind these minors again of the advantages of using private accounts and how to configure them. A very simple latter process that can be done by just accessing Settings> Privacy and security> Private account .
Thus, when an account with a lock is established, only people who have been accepted as followers will be able to see the publications. The rest of the users will be completely excluded from what is published in the main feed, the stories and even the reels.
Adults will not be able to send messages to minors
Another important measure that has been added recently has to do with the use of messages again, but this time focused on limiting the chats that some adults can start using with minors.
Initially, any message that sends an adult user profile to a better will be blocked. Those of legal age will not be able to chat with minors under 18 years of age unless they are adult accounts that they follow. If that does not happen, not a single message will arrive as long as nothing changes or continues.
In addition, Instagram adds a series of algorithms that analyze the messages sent by an adult profile to minors. If they deem it appropriate that he is or could be committing some type of inappropriate use, then they would plead the minor with notices so that he could make the decision to block, report, restrict or end the conversation with said adult.
The minor as the center and future of social networks
Protecting the little ones we have already seen that it is something fundamental today. And this is due or justified for a couple of basic reasons:
- The first is that if the aludos (parents or guardians) do not trust or are sure of the use that their children or minors in charge of social networks could make, a significant bulk of users will fall.
- The second is that if they have bad experiences as children, when they are older they will not want to continue using the service.
In addition, to all these measures are added the existing ones that do not have to do with the interaction with other users but with the time of use they invest. Thus you can establish maximum hours of use, hours in which it will not be possible to access, etc. All this can be managed from parental controls of both platforms such as Android or iOS and the options integrated into the application.
Therefore, as can be seen, taking care of this experience now and in the future will be key so that these networks are used in a healthy way and always for positive purposes. No toxic behaviors that, as we have sadly already been able to verify, sometimes lead to extreme situations that could just as well have been avoided. Although there will always be an important factor that is none other than technological education about how both the platforms and the devices themselves have to be used.
