Meta Platforms Inc. has launched new parental supervision tools on Instagram after facing criticism from regulators and the public about the app’s harms for young people.
The new tools are part of a commitment to protect teenagers that Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, made in December. That promise came after a whistle-blower testified in October that Facebook had prioritized profit over the well-being of users, especially teens.
The supervision tools are rolling out as part of a new Family Center, which will include an education hub to teach parents how to talk about social media with their teens, the company said in a blog post Wednesday. Meta plans to eventually expand the Family Center into a platform where parents can manage teen social media activity across all of Meta’s apps, the company said.
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The new update to Instagram, already available in the U.S. and slated to roll out globally, allows teens to invite a parent or guardian to supervise their accounts. Vaishnavi J, Meta’s head of youth well-being, said the company worked with parents, teens and parenting experts to create these tools for parental oversight, with the aim of helping them to talk about social media behavior.
“Those types of conversations can be really valuable for parents to have with their teens and it also is a very informed nonjudgmental conversation,” J said in an interview. “It’s really more about, ‘Let’s help you get the best out of your time online,’ rather than saying, ‘This is good and this is bad.’”