This is the new Instagram feature for teens: urges them to take a break from the social network

Instagram has begun the deployment of the notification that urges teenagers to take a break from the social network, 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’s VP of Global Affairs Nick Clegg shared some of the news the social network was working on to improve the well-being of adolescents 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 teens to take a break from social media, which from this Monday has started to work in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, and will reach 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 they 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. 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’s tools that allow you to manage the time you spend on it, such as Daily Limit.

Mosseri has announced “a new experience for people to view and manage their Instagram activity“, which will allow to massively eliminate the publications, photos and videos that have been shared but also the comments or likes. This content management experience will be available to all users in January, but from the company they believe that it will benefit more tailored to adolescents, as 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, other people from tagging or mentioning teenagers who do not follow them and that they include their content in Reels Remixes or Guides by default when they join Instagram for the first time. Likewise, the company plans to expand the ‘limit even more’ option of the sensitive content control panel, 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. Finally, and so that parents and guardians can get involved in the digital life of minors, new tools will be implemented in March 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.