Today’s teenagers no longer need to mail a handwritten letter to a friend who moved thousands of miles away but instead can simply connect online in seconds. From learning the newest TikTok dance to curating the perfect Instagram feed, social media has a clear presence in the lives of today's youth. It is growing as well, with Instagram usage amongst teens rising from 52% in 2015 to 59% in 2022. Likewise, an app such as TikTok, previously known as Musical.ly until the apps merged in 2018, is now used by 63% of teenagers. With the prevalence of these apps and their strong demographic of young teens, the question of the safety precautions put into place to protect the accounts of minors has become an ongoing discussion.
Safety for teenagers has been a point of concern since the internet came to be. Whether it be cyberbullying from peers or inappropriate conversations with other online users, keeping the platforms safe for children and teenagers is a key initiative. Thus, on September 17, 2024, Instagram announced a new “Teen Accounts” program.
According to Instagram, Teen Accounts are Instagram accounts for teens 13-17 that are automatically set to more protective teen safety settings. The biggest change that can be observed from this new policy is the automatic setting of accounts for teens 13-17 to be private instead of public, meaning that in order for an account to follow them, the teen would need to explicitly accept their request.
While many teens already opt for the private account option, the Teen Account policy would make it standard. According to Instagram’s statement, when teens 13-17 sign up for a new Instagram account, they will be defaulted to private accounts. Teens under 16 will need their parent’s or guardian’s permission to switch their accounts to public. Teens 16-17 can change their accounts to public without permission unless they have set up supervision with their parent or guardian.
For those who already have an Instagram account, the policy is slightly different. Users under 16 will have their accounts set to private, even if their accounts were previously public. Those users will need a parent or guardian’s permission to change their accounts to public. Teens over 16 with existing public accounts will not be automatically set to private, and they can keep their accounts public without parental permission.
The changes that will be implemented into Teen Accounts extend beyond just making accounts private. Under Teen Accounts, users will now only be able to message accounts they follow or are already connected to, and adult supervisors will have a new tool in their settings that allows them to see their teens' recent messaging history. Additionally, all Teen Accounts will be placed in "sleep mode" between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. These settings can be adjusted based on what the parent or guardian deems best fit for their child, with options ranging from simply reminding the teen to close the app to completely blocking the teen from using Instagram during their designated “sleep” hours.
Though there still may be loopholes that users under 18 may take in order to game the system and misrepresent their age, these efforts to protect minors on their platform are what many consider to be essential, as well as overdue.
In May 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy explained in an interview with ABC News Live the potential risks of excessive use of social media on adolescents. “I’m very concerned that social media has become an important contributor to the pain and the struggles that many of our young people are facing,” Murthy detailed.
While the new Instagram Teen Accounts seem to be primarily focused on protecting teens’ safety regarding seeing inappropriate content or communicating with strangers, it is important to note that many agree with the notion that social media can be linked to negative mental health. Murthy’s research corroborates this claim, and his findings are not unsubstantiated.
In a June 2024 opinion article for the New York Times, Murthy wrote, “Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours. Additionally, nearly half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.”
Time will tell whether or not the adjustments made to the platform will ultimately prove to be beneficial. However, as the first generation of adolescents who grew up with social media enter adulthood, more data may become available in the coming years that can show the true impact that social media platforms have on teens’ mental well-being.
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