Tuesday brought big changes to Instagram, specifically for it’s millions of teen users. Teen accounts are Instagram’s most dramatic effort yet to protect young users.
Tuesday brought big changes to Instagram, specifically for it’s millions of teen users. Teen accounts are Instagram’s most dramatic effort yet to protect young users.
With these new profiles, users under 18 will automatically see their account set to private, and teens will only be allowed to exchange messages with friends. The new rules will also restrict content for users under 18, and on top of that, ‘teen accounts’ will send a notification after an hour on the app each day.
We set out to see what Metro Detroit think about the new accounts.
“I think that there’s a lot of bad people out there and anything they’re doing to protect our children is great,” said Rachel Mann, the Pontiac mother of a 15-year-old.
“I think it’s a great idea, if it’s going to be restricted and they’re not going to have access to messages from everybody and things they should not see. And it will be capped off especially from the age group 16 through 18,” said Amber Coles. “I may consider letting him get it now, but before I would not.”
However, this plan, as expected, is generating a mixed reaction among teenagers. Some of the ones we spoke with, think this is the right move. But others, not so much.
“I feel like that’s actually a good feature because it be violence and stuff that people always want to start online and stuff like that,” said Devin Thomas.
“I feel like the world will be outside more,” said Victor Polk, an 11th grade. “I feel like Instagram has everybody in a ball. Everybody is stuck in one page, staying on their phone mostly on Instagram.
“I don’t really like it,” said Rayvon Ramsey, a 10th grader. “Because if you’re sensitive, it’s already a setting that you can restrict stuff you don’t want to see. I don’t think you do all the extra and make another Instagram. Just keep it as is.”
And to help keep teens off of their phones at night, Instagram will automatically mute notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
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