Instagram releases tools for parents to track teens’ activity

Social media platform Instagram launched a “Family Center” feature on the app on Wednesday for parents to be able to track their children’s activity and time spent on the app. 

This move comes after Instagram was criticized by lawmakers at a Senate hearing in December after internal documents disclosed by the Wall Street Journal showed Instagram’s detrimental impact on the mental health of minors.

They will also be able to monitor their teen’s use on the platform, including being able to view and receive updates on what accounts their teens follow and the accounts that follow their teens. Instagram will also let parents set notifications for when their teens share that they’ve reported someone.

The new tools released Wednesday are just “one step on a longer path,” head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said in a blog post. “Our vision for Family Center is to eventually allow parents and guardians to help their teens manage experiences across Meta technologies, all from one central place,” Mosseri said. 

The tools are first being launched in the U.S., with plans to roll out globally “in the coming months,” according to the blog post. 

Meta will allow parents to prevent teens from accessing features they feel aren’t age-appropriate by using an “Unlock Pattern” on the Quest headset to automatically lock access to those apps. Meta already allows users to create an Unlock Pattern as a way to provide extra security on the headset devices.

In May, the company will go a step further by automatically blocking teens from downloading “IARC rated age-inappropriate apps,” according to the blog post.