Podcast / 25 July, 2022 / My Baba
Recently, I was kindly invited to Meta HQ to meet with Instagram to talk about the need to take a break. I was joined by the brilliant Kira Wong O’Conner, Instagram’s Public Policy Programme Manager, Nigel Clarke, Cbeebies presenter, and Zoe Baille, deputy CEO of The Mix. In this podcast episode, we discuss Instagram’s new supervision tools and how we can make better use of our time. If you have any questions or comments, please do get in touch, info@mybaba.com.
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We’re always thinking about how we can help keep Instagram a safe and positive experience for teens, which includes helping protect them from unwanted contact, and making sure they feel good about the time they spend on the app. We have a team of 40,000 dedicated to safety on Facebook and Instagram and work closely with expert partners including The Mix and Parentzone to develop our policies.
Under 18s are automatically defaulted into a private account when they sign up, and adults can’t message under 18s who don’t follow them. We’ve also developed anti-bullying features like Hidden Words, which filters abusive comments and messages so you never have to see them, and comment warnings to encourage people to think twice before posting something that could be hurtful.
We launched Take A Break, to empower people to make informed decisions about how they’re spending their time. If someone has been scrolling for an extended period, they will be notified to take a break from Instagram and suggest that they set reminders to take more breaks in the future, as well as sharing expert-backed tips to help them reflect and reset. Early test results show that once teens set the reminders, more than 90% of them keep them on.
And most recently, we launched our new parental supervision tools, giving parents and teens more control over their experience on our app. The tools allow parents to:
As well as focusing on removing harmful content and preventing negative experiences, Instagram also believe it’s important to try and encourage positive ones and has developed several features designed to promote positivity:
For those who do encounter negativity on social media, The Mix is the UK’s leading digital charity for under 25s and can provide resources to both teens and parents alike on navigating trolls, cyberbullying and more.
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