Meta is rolling out new ‘teen accounts’ with enhanced privacy settings for Instagram users under the age of 18 in an effort to limit their exposure to harmful content on social media.
The announcement comes as the Federal Government proposes a ban on young people from accessing social media until a certain age.
The move was prompted by studies showing adolescents who spend more than three hours per day on social media face double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes, including symptoms of depression and anxiety.
In an effort to strike a healthy balance, Meta’s ‘Instagram Teen Accounts’ will automatically place teens into private accounts that give parents control over messaging and screen time. Built-in protections will limit who can contact them and the content they see, and also provide new ways for teens to explore their interests.
“Teenagers on Instagram will now start to have access to a new Instagram experience, guided by parents, which limits who can contact them, the content they see, and also provides new ways for them to safely explore their interests and passions," a Meta spokesperson told The Educator.
"It will also come with built-in protections to help support positive well-being outcomes for teens, like daily time limits, private accounts, stricter messaging restrictions, sensitive content restrictions and sleep mode."
The spokesperson said that the organisation will now start to automatically place teenagers into Teen Account protections, and teens under 16 years of age will need a parent’s permission to change any of the settings to be less strict.
“We want every teen to have a safe and enjoyable experience on our platforms," the spokesperson said. "Our hope is that the parental supervision features will help address the concerns of parents regarding their child’s social media usage, both in and out of the classroom.”
However, Scarlett Smout a Research Associate at The Matilda Centre’s Faculty of Medicine and Health, says moves to restrict children from social media, and the Meta announcement of teen account limitations, “seem to be completely missing the voices and priorities of young Australians”.
“Young Australians are the ones that will be most impacted. Albanese’s media comments have focussed on the concerns of parents and Meta have framed their settings as shifting the power in favour of parents,” Smout told The Educator.
“However, studies show that parents and adolescents have differing perspectives on the mental health and wellbeing impacts of social media, with parents’ perspectives generally more negative than that of adolescents.”
Smout noted that when researchers at The Matilda Centre, University of Sydney asked the Centre’s Youth Advisory Board for their perspective about whether social media is responsible for escalating youth mental ill-health, their answers showed nuance that blanket bans and restrictions ignore.
“They acknowledged that social media may push unrealistic lifestyle and beauty standards, increase exposure to distressing news and highly polarised social and political perspectives, diminish boredom tolerance, or replace other forms of active leisure,” she said.
“However, they also highlighted that social media can foster connections and be a platform for engaging with youth-tailored mental health education.”
Smout said other empirical research has also showed that the relationship between social media and youth mental health is not all good or all bad, and that it can be a crucial connection tool for marginalised young people.
“Further, while bans may help to delay the onset of social media use, there is a ‘cliff’ when the age cut-off is reached,” she said.
“As such, it is essential that any blunt policy measures such as bans are coupled with meaningful investment in evidence-based, wraparound approaches that empower young Australians to engage with social media in a healthy way.”