Social media platform Instagram launched a “Family Center” feature on the app on Wednesday for parents to have the ability to track their children’s activity and time spent on the app. This move comes after the platform came under fire by lawmakers at a Senate hearing in December after internal documents disclosed by the Wall Street Journal showed Instagram’s harmful impact on the mental health of minors.
A press release from Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, explained that the Family Center will allow parents to view how much time their teenage children spend on the app and set time limits. Parents will be notified when their teen reports another user, and parents will view and receive updates on what accounts their child follows and what accounts follow their child back.
“Parents and guardians know what’s best for their teens, and in December I committed to developing new supervision tools that allow them to be more involved in their teens’ experiences,” Instagram Head Adam Mosseri said in the press release. The tools are only available in the United States currently and will be rolled out globally in the coming months.
For now, teens will need to initiate parental supervision on Instagram. The press release said in June, the options for parents to initiate supervision will become available in the app and on desktop. Then, teens will need to approve parental supervision if their parent or guardian requests it.
In the foreseeable future, Instagram will also roll out parental supervision tools for Instagram VR. In addition, teens ages 13 and over will be prohibited from accessing age-inappropriate material.
“We’ll also launch a Parent Dashboard, hosting a suite of supervision tools that will link to the teen’s account based on consent from both sides,” the press release stated.
At the Senate hearing in December, Mosseri was grilled by senators on both sides of the political spectrum for not protecting children on the platform.
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In the hearing, which lasted two-and-a-half hours, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) revealed that his office created a fake Instagram account posing as a 13-year-old girl. After the fictional “13-year-old-girl” followed a female celebrity, the content recommended by the app “went dark fast.”
“It changed and it went dark fast,” Lee said in the hearing, saying the app began suggesting content “that promotes body dysmorphia” and the “sexualization of women.”
“The time for self-policing and self-regulation is over,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal (CT) said during the hearing. He pointed out that he was working with Tennessee GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn to create legislation to regulate social media platforms.
“Self-policing depends on trust. Trust is gone,” Blumenthal added. “What we need now is independent researchers, objective, overseers – not chosen by Big Tech but from outside – and strong vigorous enforcement of standards that stop the destructive, toxic content that now too often is driven at kids.”
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