Despite how much we are lectured about the dangers of the internet since young, that doesn’t stop some people from becoming a social media user at a young age.
I mean, sometimes age restrictions can’t even stop some young users, so what’s a few lectures going to do?
Except, being a young user who may not know how to customise their own experience can sometimes bring many unpleasant experiences on social media.
Private Account to be the Default Setting for Young Users
On Wednesday (28 July), Instagram’s owner Facebook announced that it will be giving users who are under the age of 16 and signing up for Instagram a private account by default.
This measure, which will come into effect this week, is part of an effort to make Instagram a safer and more private experience for young people.
Though this will only apply to users under the age of 18 in “certain countries”, the new measure will be applicable to people under the age of 16 in Singapore. No additional information on which countries were part of said “certain countries”.
As for young users who already have a public Instagram account, they will be receiving a notification highlighting the benefits of a private account, said Facebook. An explanation of how users can change their privacy settings will also be included.
“Wherever we can, we want to stop young people from hearing from adults they don’t know or don’t want to hear from,” said Facebook. That being said, it also stated that it will “still give young people the choice to switch to a public account or keep their current account public if they wish.”
In its press release, Facebook also explained the benefits of a private account.
The social media giant explained: “Private accounts let people control who sees or responds to their content. If you have a private account, people have to follow you to see your posts, Stories and Reels. People also can’t comment on your content in those places, and they won’t see your content at all in places like Explore or hashtags.”
Facebook also stated that its past research revealed that young people “appreciate a more private experience.”
“During testing, eight out of ten young people accepted the private default settings during sign-up,” said Facebook.
Protecting Young Users from Suspicious Accounts
In addition, Facebook also announced that it had “developed new technology” that will allow it to “find accounts that have shown potentially suspicious behavior and stop those accounts from interacting with young people’s accounts.”
Examples of such accounts include accounts belonging to adults, or an account that may have recently been blocked or reported by a young person, said Facebook.
According to Facebook, with this new technology, young people’s accounts will not be shown in the Explore, Reels or Accounts Suggested For You sections to these adults.
“If they find young people’s accounts by searching for their usernames, they won’t be able to follow them. They also won’t be able to see comments from young people on other people’s posts, nor will they be able to leave comments on young people’s posts,” added Facebook.
The new technology will be implemented first in the US, Australia, France, the UK and Japan, announced Facebook. It added that it will “look to expand to more countries soon.”
Changes to Advertisement Settings
In a few weeks time, advertisers will only be allowed to target ads to users under 18 based on their age, gender and location—targeting advertisements based on interests or on users’ activity on other apps and websites will not be allowed, said Facebook.
This comes after feedback from youth advocates that young people may not be well equipped to make use of tools available—such as through controls within the settings—to indicate they would rather not see ads based on their interests or their activities.
Facebook assured: “When young people turn 18, we’ll notify them about targeting options that advertisers can now use to reach them and the tools we provide to them to control their ad experience.”
This change will be implemented globally and will apply to not just Instagram, but also Facebook and Messenger.
In order to use these social media applications, you have to use data and we all know all these takes a lot of data. Check out our video for tips on how to save data:
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