Instagram tightens restrictions for teens
Starting this week, Instagram will convert all current and future accounts held by adolescents into Teen Accounts, which have built-in protections for the platform’s youngest users.
The new features will limit who can communicate with a teenager on the app, as well as the type of content the account holder can view in the Explore and Reels sections. The app will not show them sensitive content, such as individuals fighting or material encouraging cosmetic operations. To request a change, teens will need to set up parental supervision and ask for permission.
Teens will now also need to decide whether or not to accept new followers (instead of them being automatically added), and they will only receive direct messages from those they follow or are currently connected to. Additionally, the app will automatically filter out offensive words and phrases from teens’ direct messages and comments on their postings, and it will remind them to close the app after one hour of use each day.
Besides these updates, Instagram is also rolling out new parental monitoring features that allow parents to control even more of their children’s activity on the social network.
The updates come nine months after Instagram (along with other major social networks) was criticized by U.S. lawmakers for not doing enough to protect young users on its platform. The move is meant to address concerns that the app’s teen protections were more like window dressing than true compliance with the safety criteria.
Snapchat launches new features at annual Partner Summit
Snapchat recently held its sixth annual Snap Partner Summit, announcing several news and updates that are now being implemented.
The social network is testing a simplified Snapchat with a select group of Snapchatters around the world. This new version of the platform aims to simplify the user experience by organizing the app around what phones are used for most: communicating, taking photos and being entertained, the company says.
The app is also rolling out new AI features, allowing Snapchat+ subscribers to see captions, and updating the My AI chatbot to do things like interpret complex parking signs and translate menus in a foreign language.
A new simplified profile design is also being rolled out, allowing users over the age of 16 to easily switch between their personal and public accounts. Users will now be able to pin their favourite Snaps to the top of their public profile, use templates to create and share Snaps, and turn messages into a photo and video response.
The company is also making AR creation more accessible with a new tool that allows the creation of lenses in minutes. Additionally, it is updating its Snap Star Collab Studio, a program that helps accelerate partnerships between creators and brands. Through new self-service tools, creators can choose to directly display and share their demographic and interaction data with brands and advertisers.
Snapchat announced the updates after its CEO Evan Spiegel revealed that the app will soon begin experimenting with displaying brand-sponsored messages alongside friends’ chat threads. Sponsored Snaps will appear as unread messages in the app’s main chat tab.
