Instagram will also introduce 'Teen Accounts' in South Korea. A teen account is a new Instagram account applicable to teenagers aged 14 to 18. It was introduced to provide a safe online experience for teenagers and create an environment for parents to manage and supervise their children's social networking service (SNS) activities.
Instagram held a media briefing to mark the launch of teen accounts on Nov. 11 in Centerfield, Gangnam, Seoul. During the briefing, Adam Mosseri, Instagram's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), introduced the teen account through a live streaming session. The Instagram teen account was launched in English-speaking countries in September last year, and it will be applied in South Korea from mid-January with a phased rollout to all accounts by the end of June this year.
Mosseri noted that the introduction of the teen account focuses on prioritizing the safety of teenagers. The teen account includes enhanced default settings regarding ▲ account visibility ▲ contactable users ▲ displayed content ▲ time management.
The teen account is set to private by default. The people who can contact the teenager are also limited. Teen accounts can only receive messages from people they follow or have previously communicated with. Interactions such as tags, mentions, and content remixes are also restricted to accounts that the teenager follows. Management of sensitive content follows the strictest standards. Teen accounts are automatically configured to minimize the visibility of sensitive content in search results, the explore tab, Reels, and recommended content in the feed.
Additionally, features to manage teenagers' application (app) usage time will also be provided. If the app is used for more than 60 minutes in a day, a notification to close the app will appear, and a restricted mode will automatically be set from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. During this time, notifications will be turned off, an automatic reply will be sent to direct messages, and a notification will appear to close the app. Parents can decide whether to block the app when the time limit is reached.
Teenagers under the age of 17 will need permission from their parents or guardians to lower the safety setting's protection level. Teenagers aged 17 to 18 can change these settings directly unless their parents or guardians are managing their accounts. These differentiated protective measures aim to provide a more segmented app experience by age group while also protecting teenagers, according to Mosseri.
Parents can manage their children's accounts through the 'Family Center' dashboard within the app. Parents can click and adjust items such as account visibility, content settings, and usage time management. Here, parents can check their children's chat account lists, including accounts the child follows, accounts that follow the child, blocked accounts, and changes to the settings. Additionally, they can set it up so that sensitive content is less exposed to their child's account or block receiving messages, tags, mentions, and content remixes from accounts the child does not follow.
However, parents cannot check their children's chat contents and search history, nor can they post content on behalf of their children, delete accounts, or reset passwords. If parents are not mutually following their child's private account, they cannot view their child's posts.
Instagram has stated it is using various technologies to prevent teenagers from bypassing age verification and to enhance the effectiveness of teen accounts. Currently, Instagram does not require age verification upon registration. Therefore, there are concerns that if someone falsifies their age during registration, they could bypass the teen account setup.
Lee Seul-ki, the Director of Meta's External Policy Team, said, "We recognize there are attempts by teenagers to input fake birth dates," adding that if a teenager enters false information as an adult or an adult changes to a teenager's account, suspicious accounts will be tracked by artificial intelligence (AI), requesting selfies, videos, and identification to accurately determine age.
Mosseri emphasized that cooperation with operating systems (OS) such as Google and Apple is necessary. He stated, "Instagram will do its best, but it is also important to manage at the device level such as OS or mobile phones when teenagers attempt to bypass. The OS collects user birth dates during sign-up, providing accurate information regarding users' ages."