Instagram starts urging teens to take a break from social media

Instagram has started rolling out the notification that urges teens to take a break from social media, a function that will accompany next year with additional tools so that parents and guardians can get involved in the digital experience of minors.

In October, Facebook Vice President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg shared some of the news the social network was working on to improve the well-being of teens and tweens, along with the news that Instagram Kids was paralyzing.

Then, it was announced that the platform would introduce a notification that would urge adolescents to take a break from the social network, which since Monday has begun to work in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, and will arrive to the rest of the user at the beginning of the year.

“If someone has been browsing for a certain period of time, we will ask them to take a break from Instagram and We will suggest that you set reminders to take more breaks in the future“Said the director of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, in a statement. This feature will also display expert-backed tips to aid reflection.

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This launch follows a test of the function, in which the company has found that once adolescents set the reminders, more than 90 percent keep them activated, according to the manager.

This notification to take a break is part of the platform tools that allow manage the time spent in it, such as Daily Limit. Mosseri has announced “a new experience for people to view and manage their Instagram activity”, which will allow mass removal of the publications, photos and videos they have shared, but also the comments or likes.

This content management experience will be available to all users in January, but the company believes that will benefit teens the mostas they will be able to better understand what information they have shared on the social network, what is visible to others and have an easier way to manage their fingerprint.

Continuing with the news to protect minor users on the platform, Instagram will prevent, from the beginning of the year, that other people tag or mention adolescents who do not follow them and that they include their content in Reels Remixes or Guides by default when they are Join Instagram for the first time.

The company also plans to expand the option ‘further limit’ the control panel to sensitive content, which acts on the suggestions in the ‘Explore’ section, and which could be extended to Search, ‘hashtags’, Reels and suggested accounts. To this would be added suggestions towards other topics, when it is detected that an adolescent has been focused on the same topic for too long, with the aim of avoiding comparisons and benefiting mental health.

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Finally, and so that parents and guardians can get involved in the digital life of minors, in March new tools will be implemented with which they can see how much time their teenagers spend on Instagram and set time limits. For their part, teens can notify their parents if they report someone. This will be accompanied by a new educational center with resources such as tutorials and tips. (I)