Instagram announced the arrival of the new ones parental control tools, to reassure the parents of minors who use the platform. The announcement comes before the company’s CEO testimony Adam Mosseri in front of the United States Senate, where we will talk above all about the impact of social media on the very young.
Instagram announces the arrival of parental controls, on the platform since March
A few months ago, Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, revealed that the company did not publish a study on the effect of Instagram on minors. Since then, media and political attention has put Instagram under pressure. Whose CEO Adam Mosseri will have to testify in front of the Senate tomorrow.
The day before, however, Mosseri published the news coming to the platform on the blog. He assured parents of teenagers on the platform will be able to limit the time spent on the app. In addition, teenagers will be able to communicate with parents if they have reported anyone for the violation of the policies.
Mosseri explained that “this is the first version of these tools. We will continue to add more options over time ”. The parental control of Instagram therefore promises to give different tools to protect the youngest. Among these there will also be bans for other users. For example, users they will not be able to tag or mention underage users who are not followers. And in January the app will allow minors di delete their posts, comments and likes en masse.
But the political tension does not seem to have eased. The New York Times reports the words of the senator Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican: “Meta is trying to shift focus from its mistakes with these parental measures, usage timers, and content control options that users should have had from the start. But my colleagues and I see clearly what they are doing ”.