In a recent development, the popular social media app, Instagram will be making accounts for users under 16 years of age ‘private’ by default. This means that no one can view your posts unless they are your follower.
This move is well appreciated on part of the Facebook-owned social media app, Instagram. Because it helps users under 16 years of age to be away from the prying eyes of trolls.
As per The Verge, anyone who creates an Instagram account and is under 16 years of age (or 18 in some countries) will have their accounts set to private by default.
However, users will have the option to change their profile visibility from private to public. The good thing is Instagram will prompt users under these ages, to switch their accounts to private by sending them a notification.
Notably, this is not a sudden move by Instagram. It has been encouraging young people to switch their accounts to private for a while. Instagram showed a message explaining the benefits of a private account.
Fast forward to now, the social media app will be making the accounts of such users private by default. It will then rest the decision on the user to switch back the profile to private.
Facebook is also bringing changes to how advertisers target users under 18 years of age
In another move, Facebook is also bringing some changes on how advertisers target young users on its platforms, basically those who are under 18 years of age.
Previously, any users could be targeted by advertisers on the platform based on their interests and activity. Advertisers also used all the data that Facebook collects from across the web. Not just via its own apps, but through the user’s web browsing history, app usage, and the pages they like.
Advertisers now will target users under 18 years of age only based on their age, gender, and location. The best thing is that this will apply to all Facebook-owned apps such as Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook as well.
Instagram says that it is doing its best to identify “potentially suspicious behavior” from accounts. Meaning that any account which is blocked or reported by the young user will never be shown under-16 accounts in the Explore, Reels, or Suggested Accounts page.
On top of this, such suspicious accounts won’t be able to see the comments of the young users. Nor they will be able to comment on content posted by the user under 16 years of age.
