Facebook plans to create a version of Instagram for children under 13, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.
“I’m excited to announce that in the future, we’ve identified youth work as a priority for Instagram and added it to our H1 priority list,” wrote Vishal Shah, Instagram’s vice president of product at an employee board, according to BuzzFeed.
“We will build a new youth pillar within the community’s product group to focus on two things: (a) accelerating our work of integrity and privacy to ensure the safest possible experience for teens, and (b) building an Instagram version that allows people under the age of 13 to use Instagram for the first time safely, ”Shah added.
According to reports, the new project will be overseen by Instagram boss Adam Mosseri and led by Vice President Pavni Diwanji. Diwanij previously worked at Google, where he oversaw the creation of children’s products such as YouTube Kids.
Instagram conditions of use it currently prohibits people under the age of 13 from using the app.
“We have a lot of things to do here,” Mosseri told BuzzFeed. “But part of the solution is to create an Instagram version for young people or children where parents have transparency or control. It’s one of the things we’re exploring.”
Mosseri said the project was in initial development and added that Instagram does not yet have a “detailed plan” in place.
“Every time kids ask their parents if they can join apps that help them keep up with their friends. Right now there aren’t many options for parents, so we’re working on creating additional products, as we did with Messenger Kids, that are suitable for children, managed by parents, “a Facebook company spokesman told The Hill in a statement. “We’re exploring bringing a parent-controlled experience to Instagram to help kids keep up with their friends, discover new hobbies and interests and more.”
BuzzFeed notes that Instagram had this week posted a blog post about bullying among its younger users and teens.
“We require everyone to be at least 13 years old to use Instagram and we’ve asked new users to indicate their age when they sign up for a while to get an account. While a lot of people are honest about their age, we know young people can lying about her date of birth, ”Instagram wrote in Tuesday’s blog post. “To meet this challenge, we are developing new artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to help us keep teens safer and implement new age-appropriate features.”
New features include restricting direct messages between teens and adults they don’t follow, which caused teens to be more cautious about direct message interactions, encouraging teens to make private accounts, and making meeting and tracking difficult. from adolescents to adults.