Facebook group social platform responds to criticism by introducing Parental Control: now the responsibility for children's health returns to parents
"At Instagram, we've been working for a long time to protect young people who use the app; as part of that work, today we're announcing some new tools and features to keep young people even safer on Instagram." With these words opens the press release with which the social group Facebook-Meta announces a series of new features aimed at making the platform healthier for adolescents.
This is a first reaction of the company to the rain of criticism received in recent months, especially after the famous "mole" Frances Haugen revealed to the American press the existence of an internal study, never disclosed by Facebook, which showed how Instagram was "toxic" for girls and how it could promote the onset of eating disorders, anorexia in the first place. Facebook has always denied any accusations, but after introducing some superficial changes to the image-based social, it is now preparing to launch a real parental control: parents will be able to control their children. So if anything goes wrong, the responsibility will be theirs.
Instagram's Parental Control
Parental control will arrive in March on Instagram and will consist of parents being able to know how many hours their children spend in front of the app. It will also be possible to set time limits, after which the app will be unusable.
An "education hub" will also be created, within which there will be content explaining to parents how Instagram works and how to make the kids use it best.
According to Instagram chief Adam Mosseri, these changes have been in the works for quite some time and are not related to the media, and consequently political, pressure that has overwhelmed Instagram in recent months.
Instagram, the other pro-teen news
Other changes have already been in testing for a few weeks in the United States and will soon be extended to other countries. To protect minors from potentially malicious adults, for example, Instagram is preventing them from following minors without mutual contact.
The "Take a break" feature, which prompts users to take a break when they've been using the app for too long in a row, will instead be extended to the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.