Facebook’s popular social media platform Instagram is preparing to launch a new version of the image-sharing network, designed specifically for children under 13.
According to Buzzfeed News, the new version is especially targeted at its younger audience.
“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,” wrote Vishal Shah, Instagram’s vice president of product, in a document released internally.
“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,” Shah continued.
Company executives have been trying to reconcile Instagram’s steady popularity with content regulations for younger users for a long time.
Children under the age of 13 are supposed to be forbidden from using the app. But naturally, users skirt around the platform’s efforts to control youth’s access to the app by lying about their age and date of birth, which has made screening measures difficult.
“Verifying people’s age online is complex and something many in our industry are grappling with,” company executives wrote in the internal document. “To address this challenge – we’re developing new artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to help us keep teens safer as well as apply new age-appropriate features.”
Some of the new protective features will include increased screenings of direct messaging (DM), which is specifically aimed at protecting teenagers from communication with unwanted adults. The new tool will also prevent adult users from messaging users under 18 who do not follow them.
Developers will also be exploring ways to hide teen accounts from adult users on the platform based on current search algorithms, they will also encourage teenage users to set their accounts to private in order to restrict access and retain privacy.
“We’re assessing additional measures we can take to protect young people on Instagram, including additional privacy settings. We’ll have more to share in the coming months,” the internal statement confirmed.
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