In the era of social media, how can your teen enjoy it while staying safe?
Last week, Instagram announced and launched Teen Accounts—a newly designed platform created to address parents’ growing concerns about their children’s safety on social media. To celebrate this significant milestone, The Knockturnal was invited to an event featuring a fireside chat with Honest founder Jessica Alba, Dr. Aliza Pressman, co-founder of the Mount Sinai Parenting Center and host of the Raising Good Humans podcast, and Eva Chen, Instagram’s Head of Fashion. The event offered not only valuable insights from the speakers but also fun activations, including a coffee and fresh juice bar, a button-making station, a tech point for attendees to ask questions and plenty of photo spots.
During the fireside chat, Jessica Alba highlighted the importance of teen safety in the digital age: “As parents, our biggest responsibility is the safety of our kids. Teens today are digital natives, the exposure they have day in and day out in the digital world is something that is undeniable. Agreeing to let your teens use social media is a big decision, and while we do so much to protect them, it can be hard to feel confident that they’re having a safe, positive experience. The new Instagram Teen Accounts features are a great backup to help provide more peace of mind that teens have safe, built-in protections from the start.”
Parents in the audience were particularly interested in learning about the features of Teen Accounts. Some key features include:
- Teens under 16 are automatically placed into private accounts, limiting who can contact them and restricting the type of content they can see.
- A Sleep Mode feature, which mutes notifications at night, allows teens to unplug and rest.
- Parental supervision tools, enable parents to see who their teens are messaging and manage when and how long their teens can use the app.
- Teens will also have the ability to select positive and engaging content that resonates with their interests to appear more frequently in their feeds.
These settings can only be changed with parental permission, ensuring that parents maintain oversight of their teens’ online experience. The built-in protections are aimed at creating a safer environment for users under 16 while keeping their experience fun and secure.
The Instagram Teen Accounts event marked a major step forward in addressing parents’ concerns about their children’s digital lives while empowering teens to enjoy a customized, safe social media experience. You can read more about the launch [HERE].
