Instagram announced a Teen Accounts feature last year for teenagers to consume safe content on the social media platform. Now, the company is further enhancing the feature where it will use AI technology to identify Teen Accounts and automatically enable the protective settings for a Teen account for that user.
“We’ve enrolled at least 54 million teens into Teen Accounts globally so far, with 97% of teens ages 13-15 electing to remain in these protections, and we recently expanded the Teen Account experience to Facebook and Messenger,” said Instagram. Now, Instagram will begin sending notifications to parents on Instagram with information about how they can have conversations with their teens on the importance of providing the correct age online.
“We worked with experts like pediatric psychologist Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart to share tips on how to have these conversations, and to check and confirm their teens’ ages on our apps,” said the social media platform.
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Aside from that, the platform is beginning to test AI technology to identify Teen Accounts in the US, even if the account lists an adult birthday, and place them in Teen Account settings. “We’re taking steps to ensure our technology is accurate and that we are correctly placing teens we identify into protective, age-appropriate settings, but in case we make a mistake, we’re giving people the option to change their settings.”
Instagram Teen Accounts are designed to better support parents and give them peace of mind that their teens are safe with the right protections in place. Teens get access to a new feature, made just for them, that lets them select topics they want to see more of in Explore and their recommendations so they can focus on the fun, positive content they love.