Instagram is making major changes for young people on its platform
What you need to know
- Instagram is making big changes for young people who use its platform
- It is going to set accounts for under 16s to private by default.
- It is also making it harder to find the accounts of young people and limiting advertising options.
Instagram has today announced some major changes to its platform for younger users, including a move that will make it much harder to find teenagers on the platform.
The company says that it wants to keep Instagram fun whilst also being safe and private, and that young people should not have to deal with unsolicited DMs or comments from strangers. Facebook says that it believes private accounts for users "are the right choice for young people", but that it also wants to give young creators with public accounts the choice. That's why, starting today, the company is going to default young people to private accounts:
That means young people can control who sees their content, and Facebook says the vast majority of its younger users prefer this anyway:
Young users who already have public accounts will get a notification giving them the option.
The company is also going to make it harder for "certain adults" who have shown "potentially suspicious behavior" to find the accounts of young people:
This change is coming to the U.S., Australia, France, UK, and Japan to begin with.
Finally, it is also limiting the type of adverts that can be targeted at younger people:
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You can read the full announcement here.
Facebook has also today posted a separate article detailing how it monitors whether or not someone is old enough to use its platform.
Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design. Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9