Instagram was last year accused by former Facebook employee Frances Haugen. In her accusation, she made public some documents on the internal affairs of the Meta owned social media platform. These “released documents” suggested that Instagram was aware that its services affect teens negatively (with emphasis on girls). Truthfully, more than a few people have affirmed that Instagram has harmful effects on children. The big question however is, how do you keep your child safe?
Some parents have tried to restrain their children from gaining access to apps like Instagram at a young age. A noble intention, but, one way or another children still gain access to these apps. It’s certain that if children gain access to these apps without proper supervision, the damage they will experience will be long-lasting. The best way to save a child from the damaging effects of apps like Instagram is to teach them at a young age how to properly use them.
Some applications and online services accessible to children out there provide some form of parental control features to enable parents to inculcate digital etiquettes to their youngsters. Over the years Instagram has not been one of such applications, but, the expected change is finally here.
What sort of permission will this “Instagram Parental Control” grant supervising parents?
At the moment, the Instagram parental control is not available in all regions but in the coming months, we will see this feature roll out to all Instagram users. As we wait for this feature to get to our region, what can we expect from it?
As a parent with an Instagram account you will be able to:
- Monitor your child’s daily Instagram usage.
- Tell whom your child follows or who follows your child on Instagram.
- Set daily limits to your child’s Instagram usage.
This feature will only work for children aged 13-17, any child below that age range is not eligible to be on Instagram. While the control a parent has using Instagram parental control are limited at the moment, we hope that with new updates more privileges will be added.
