As we've seen over the last decade, social media has become a favorite pastime for people of all ages. While there is the stigma that older social media users gravitate to Facebook and children are obsessed with TikTok, Instagram is one social media platform that tends to have an audience with a much more varied age range. Unfortunately, that can lead to inappropriate and dangerous interactions between adults and underage users, so Instagram has announced that it will be updating the app with a string of prompts, restrictions, and new settings that are all geared towards protecting young Instagram users.
In a tweet on Tuesday morning, Instagram revealed the changes that would be coming to the beloved social media platform, saying that the updates are being done "to keep teens safe on Instagram." The three-part update involves restricting adults from being able to DM underage users who are not following them, sending safety prompts to teens in an effort to encourage them to be safe while messaging adults that they are connected with, and suggesting that teenage users opt to make their accounts private.
According to Complex, Instagram has also teamed up with ConnectSafely and The Child Mind Institute to provide a new parental guide that offers tools, tips, resources, and conversation starters for teens and their parents.
