IT has been almost a week since the Parental Supervision tool on Instagram was made available in Malaysia.
For parents, it is a tool that would help you "mitigate risks and maximise the benefits" for your Instagram-active young (13-18 years old) children. For the teen users, it is a tool where you can allow parents or/and guardians to view your activity on the platform.
The new tool is part of Instagram's initiative to promote youth safety online, and part of Meta's "Family Center" which serves as a hub where parents or guardians can access resources as well as empower teens to make healthy decisions, build trusted networks and create boundaries for safer use, ultimately across Meta technologies.
Sharing the updated information, head of public policy (APAC) for Instagram Philip Chua, said the improvements are in addition to what was introduced last year as the platform strive to make Instagram safer for its young users by looking at classifiers to understand their real age, and defaulting these accounts to change how they are discovered and giving them "age-appropriate experiences".
"We want young people to have an experience that is both fun and safe when using our apps… in addition to the improvements we've made over the last year, including helping teens have safer and more private experiences, restricting how advertisers can reach young people, understanding users' real age, and providing teens with more tools to better manage their Instagram experience," he said.
HOW IT WORKS
Instagram made it clear that the tool is based on mutual agreement as the tool was made to "help with supervision and supporting families to create boundaries for safe use together" – keyword, TOGETHER.
"Our intention is for these tools and resources to strike the right balance between young people's expectations for autonomy, whilst allowing for parents and caregivers to support their teen online," said Chua.
The Supervision features show new connections teens make on Instagram, including who they follow and who follow them.
For younger users who need time limits, parents or guardians can schedule breaks or set time limits to assist teens balance their time on the platform.
When they make a report, the teen can keep their parents or guardians in the loop about it and this, according to Chua, would encourage them to open up and discuss their concerns together.
SETTING UP SUPERVISION
To activate the tool, Instagram requires either parent or teen to send an invitation. The invitation must be accepted for supervision to start.
If a teen sends the invitation, they must confirm that the parent who accepted the invitation is the correct person to supervise their account. Only one parent (above 18 years old) can be supervising a teen's account.
Bear in mind that invitations expire 48 hours from the time it is first created. If the invitation has expired, either party can create a new invitation again.