PARENTS of teens with Instagram are being urged to activate a NEW safety feature.
Instagram is now rolling out new “parental supervision” tools for the popular app.
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Parents or guardians will be able to keep tabs on their kids’ activities, including time spent in the app and who their teen is following.
It’ll even be possible to schedule enforced Instagram breaks – handy for parents of Instagram addicts.
Meta (which owns Instagram) says that the new features are rolling out in the UK from today, so check your app to see if it’s available.
US users have had access to the new controls since March.
So how does it work?
First, both the parent and teenager has to have Instagram for it to work.
The process can be initiated by either a teen or parent, but both parties have to accept.
It’ll be possible to track a teen’s time spent in the app, as well as set time limits.
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These limits could be 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, one hour or two hours.
And you can set scheduled breaks at certain times and/or on particular days.
The teen will get a 10-minute reminder before the scheduled break.
Parents will also be able to see the accounts that are followed by a youngster – and who follows them.
And they’ll receive notifications about activity, like when a teen gets new followers.
However, no access is given to search or DM chatting history.
And it’s impossible to see posts unless the account is public, or the parent follows it.
Teens will also be able to let their parents or guardians know when they’ve reported someone – and what for.
It’s possible to remove supervision at any time (by either party) but both users will be notified.
And supervision ends when a teenager turns 18.
Turn on Instagram parental controls
To find the new feature, go to Settings > Supervision.
Then look for Supervision Overview to invite a parent or teenager.
An SMS link will then be created for the other person to accept, kickstarting the parental supervision system.
Instagram says it worked with parents and academics to build the new system.
If you don’t see it from today, try updating your app in the Apple App Store on iPhone or Google Play Store for Android.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
