Instagram, a social networking site, has announced the launch of its “parental supervision” capabilities in India, allowing parents to monitor (and manage) their children’s use of the platform, despite criticism for having a negative impact on children. It is also launching a “family centre,” a location where parents and other responsible adults can obtain materials and tools for supervision from professionals.
The introduction in India appears to be a component of the global rollout of the family centre and supervision restrictions, which were initially introduced in the USA in March of this year.
According to Natasha Jog, manager of public policy for Facebook India and Instagram (Meta), “The family centre and the supervision tools will support our efforts to keep children safe. Our goal is to strike the correct balance between allowing for supervision in a way that facilitates dialogues between parents and children when those conversations are beneficial while also accommodating young people’s desire for some autonomy when using Instagram.”
How might modern monitoring tools benefit parents?
Parents can now examine how much time their kids spend on Instagram and establish time limits with the help of the new monitoring tools. To restrict their teen’s use of the platform, they can also designate particular hours of the day or days of the week.
When an adolescent chooses to report an account or post, the parent may receive notification, along with information about the user and the content being reported. In addition, they may monitor the accounts their teenagers follow as well as the ones that follow them. Teenagers can now receive invitations from their parents to start using parental control programmes. Invitations could initially only be sent by teenagers.
Parents can manage Instagram supervision settings and check the accounts that they are monitoring through the Family Centre. The family centre will also provide access to materials written by professionals, articles, films, and advice on subjects including how to talk to young people about social media in both English and Hindi. The company added in a statement that parents may also view video tutorials on how to use the new supervision tools.
The “Family Center” can be accessed by parents by tapping their profile or profile photo in the bottom right. In the top right corner, select More, then select Settings. Then select “Supervision.”
To engage parents and promote the tools, Meta also collaborates with Kidsstoppress.com, a platform for parenting needs.
