New Instagram features will change things for teens, parents forever

After numerous controversies, Instagram has been working to keep teens safe on the app and in order to do the same it has announced some new tools and features. Regarding these new Instagram features, the app, in its latest blog post, said, "We’ll be taking a stricter approach to what we recommend to teens on the app, we’ll stop people from tagging or mentioning teens that don’t follow them, we’ll be nudging teens towards different topics if they’ve been dwelling on one topic for a long time and we’re launching the Take a Break feature in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which we previously announced."

Instagram has also announced that it will be launching its first tools for parents and guardians early next year to help them get more involved in their teen’s experiences on the app. Parents and guardians will be able to see how much time their teens spend on Instagram and set time limits. And Instagram will also have a new educational hub for parents and guardians.

"Parents and guardians know what's best for their teens, so we plan to launch our first tools in March to help them guide and support their teens on Instagram. Parents and guardians will be able to view how much time their teens spend on Instagram and set time limits. We’ll also give teens a new option to notify their parents if they report someone, giving their parents the opportunity to talk about it with them. This is the first version of these tools; we’ll continue to add more options over time," Instagram said in the post.

The educational hub for parents and guardians will include additional resources, like product tutorials and tips from experts, to help them discuss social media use with their teens.

While launching 'Take A Break' on December 7, Instagram said, "we’re launching ‘Take A Break’ to empower people to make informed decisions about how they’re spending their time. If someone has been scrolling for a certain amount of time, we’ll ask them to take a break from Instagram and suggest that they set reminders to take more breaks in the future. We’ll also show them expert-backed tips to help them reflect and reset."

To make sure that teens are aware of this feature, the app will show them notifications suggesting they turn these reminders on. This feature has been launched in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia on December 7 and is expected to come to everyone by early next year.

The ‘Take a Break’ reminders build on Instagram's existing time management tools including Daily Limit, which lets people know when they’ve reached the total amount of time they want to spend on Instagram each day, and offers the ability to mute notifications from the app.

The application is also starting to test a new experience for people to see and manage their Instagram activity. "We know that as teens grow up, they want more control over how they show up both online and offline so, for the first time, they will be able to bulk delete content they’ve posted like photos and videos, as well as their previous likes and comments," the blog post read. This new experience will be available to everyone in January.

The app will also switch off the ability for people to tag or mention teens who don’t follow them, or to include their content in Reels Remixes or Guides by default when they first join Instagram. "We’re testing these changes to further minimize the possibility that teens will hear from those they don’t know, or don’t want to hear from, and plan to make them available to everyone early next year," it said.