Instagram to restrict features for Singapore users who are under 18

SINGAPORE – Instagram accounts belonging to users under 18 years old in Singapore now have more restrictive settings by default as the app

faces growing pressure

to protect children online.

From Jan 21, teens under 18 will be moved into Teen Accounts on Instagram and those who try to change their age to over 18 will be asked to verify their age.

Instagram is also trialling the use of new measures to spot those who lie about their age, starting in the US.

The move, part of a tightening of restrictions globally and clean-up of accounts belonging to users who have lied about their age, comes in response to global pressure to safeguard young users from addiction, cyber bullying and harmful content.

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, in particular,

faced criticism

as a wave of US state attorneys in 2023 accused Meta of hooking children on its apps without mitigating the risks.

Instagram’s Teen Account settings – which shield accounts from strangers – will kick in for all teenagers.

Videos of people fighting or promoting cosmetic procedures, violent movie scenes and other sensitive content will also be kept off the feeds of teen accounts.

Ms Tara Hopkins, Meta’s global director of public policy for Instagram and Threads, said the update, which is being progressively pushed to users in Asia, will significantly change the experience on the app for millions of users worldwide.

The measures aim to assure parents that children will have a safer experience online, and move away from relying on age declarations as the main way of telling a user’s age.

Instagram uses a real-time facial scanning technology developed by age-verification tech company Yoti, which, while not perfect, marks the best in class for the technology, Ms Hopkins said.

Meta can also check for other social media accounts linked to the user’s phone number or e-mail, she added, declining to elaborate on this to avoid giving hints to those keen to game the system.

The company is also building technology to proactively scan for users who have misrepresented their age, by analysing users’ profile picture and the demographic of their followers, among other indicators.

For instance, users who claim to be adults but have a large number of followers in their teens could be flagged for age verification, she said, adding that the measure will be trialled in the US first before other countries.

The change by Instagram marks a shift from the longstanding practice of simply accepting users’ age declarations. Social media companies have led similar purges before – for example, TikTok removed more than 7.2 million accounts suspected of being owned by underage users in 2021.

Ms Hopkins clarified that existing measures to police the platform for cyber bullying, violent or sexual content and other harmful material have not been affected by

Meta’s decision to wind down content moderation efforts on its platforms

, which include Instagram, Facebook and Threads. The policy U-turn has been criticised as

an effort to appease the far right

.

Parents of young Instagram users can pair their account with their child’s to manually tweak the restrictions to gradually expose their children to new features on the app under parental supervision.

Users under 16 who try to change their account privacy settings will be prompted to add a parent to their account for approval. A new feature allows teens between age 16 and 18 to opt out of the restrictions, following feedback from parents that older teens should get more autonomy over their use of the app, said Ms Hopkins.

Teenagers who edit their age in their profile settings can be screened for their age or asked to submit an ID for verification.

Parents who want greater oversight over their child’s online activities can also set up a teen supervision account with their child’s agreement.

The account will enable parents to monitor their child’s time spent on Instagram, set screen time limits by restricting app access during specific periods, and send reminders encouraging breaks from the app.

Parents can view profile details of individuals their child has messaged and those the child has blocked on Instagram.

Addressing privacy concerns, Ms Hopkins said: “We think we have the right balance.”

Parents can see who their children are messaging but not the content, she said, adding that “the objective here is to give parents information to have an offline conversation with their teen”.