It’s been a long time coming. Instagram is reportedly building a version of the photo-sharing app that can be used by children under the age of 13, according to a BuzzFeed News report. At present, anyone under 13 isn’t allowed to use the platform but in 2017, Facebook — the company that owns Instagram, Messenger as well as WhatsApp — rolled out Messenger Kids, designed specifically for children.
“I’m excited to announce that going forward, we have identified youth work as a priority for Instagram and have added it to our H1 priority list. We will be building a new youth pillar within the Community Product Group to focus on two things: (a) accelerating our integrity and privacy work to ensure the safest possible experience for teens and (b) building a version of Instagram that allows people under the age of 13 to safely use Instagram for the first time,” Vishal Shah, Instagram’s vice-president of product, reportedly wrote on an employee message board, a post BuzzFeed News has seen.
A few days ago Instagram introduced new policies to limit interactions between teenagers and adults to make the platform safer for young users. The policy stops adults from direct messaging teenagers who don’t follow them and is introducing “safety prompts” that will be shown to teens when they DM adults who have been “exhibiting potentially suspicious behaviour”.
Joe Osborne, a Facebook spokesperson, has told The Verge: “Right now there aren’t many options for parents, so we’re working on building additional products — like we did with Messenger Kids — that are suitable for kids, managed by parents. 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.”
The effort will reportedly be overseen by Instagram’s head Adam Mosseri while Facebook vice-president Pavni Diwanji will lead it. Before joining Facebook, Diwanji worked for Google and oversaw products aimed at children, including YouTube Kids. Mosseri has tweeted: “Kids are increasingly asking their parents if they can join apps that help them keep up with their friends. A version of Instagram where parents have control, like we did w/ Messenger Kids, is something we’re exploring. We’ll share more down the road.”
Making online products for children has never been easy because of concerns about privacy as well as legal issues. In September 2019, the Federal Trade Commission fined Google $170 million for tracking the viewing histories of children to serve ads to them on YouTube, a violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
