Instagram, the Facebook-owned social media platform was reportedly working on a special version for the teens. After lots of criticism of that move, the company’s CEO Adam Mosseri is now set to testify before a Senate panel on the harmful effects of the platform on teens.
Now, ahead of that hearing, Instagram has announced a few new tools and features that are aimed at the safety of teens. There’s a new feature called “Take A Break” which the company says is aimed at helping younger users make “informed decisions about how they’re spending their time.”
As a part of the feature, the platform will ask users to take a break if they have been scrolling for a certain amount of time. Further, the app will also suggest users set reminders and take more breaks.
The feature has now been rolled out to users in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia and is expected to be available globally early next year. The company says that the early test results have shown more than 90 percent of teens keep reminders on after setting up the feature.
In another feature, the company is now removing the ability for other users to tag teens in a post or mention them if they do not follow them.
Instagram says that it is working on a few other tools to allow parents and guardians to control teens’ experience on the app. Parents and guardians will be able to view just how much time kids spend on Instagram and also set daily time limits for them.
