Facebook Inc.’s Instagram will direct teens to private accounts and limit the way ads are displayed to them, amid growing concerns from federal lawmakers and state attorneys general about the health effects of social media. children’s mental.
Facebook, which is also continuing to work to launch a version of Instagram for users under the age of 13, said the changes for teens reflect its commitment to providing better service and protecting younger users. The changes were announced on the Instagram blog on Tuesday and will be implemented this week.
“Instagram has been on a journey to really think about the experience that young people have,” Karina Newton, Instagram’s head of public policy, said in an interview before the announcement. “We need to get this right.”
As part of the changes, Instagram will make accounts private by default for anyone under the age of 18, a setting that means your posts can only be viewed by people they choose to connect with.
Newton said the decision to default to teen accounts in a private setting reflected that younger users might not automatically be prepared for the public exposure that Instagram can bring.
Source: WSJ
