Facebook Prepares Instagram For Children, Is There A Negative Impact?

Instagram will launch a children's version of social media (Mashable)

JAKARTA - Facebook plans to release Instagram for children aged 13 years and under. In fact, previously they were not allowed to create an account on Instagram as before. The emergence of this plan allowed them to create accounts.

Based on a report from Buzzfeed via The Verge, Friday, March 19, said that Facebook as the parent company is designing the latest version of Instagram specifically for children and teenagers.

According to Instagram Product Vice President, Vishal Shah said his party announced the plan in a Facebook post for employees last Thursday.

Vishal also revealed that his party would increase the privacy and security of the Instagram platform for teenage users.

"I am pleased to announce that going forward, we have identified young people as a priority for Instagram and have added them to our H1 priority list", said Vishal.

“We will build a new pillar within the Community Product Group to focus on two things: (a) accelerating our integrity and privacy work to ensure the safest experience for teens and (b) building a version of Instagram that enables people under the age of 13. to use Instagram safely for the first time”, explained Vishal.

The discourse on the roll-out of Instagram for teenagers and children was confirmed by Facebook. They also emphasized that the child's version of Instagram can be controlled by parents.

"More and more children are asking their parents if they can join an app that helps them stay connected to their friends", Facebook said.

“At the moment there are not many choices for parents, so we are developing an additional product as we did with Messenger Kids that are suitable for children, managed by parents. We're exploring bringing parent-controlled experiences to Instagram to help kids stay connected to their peers, discover new hobbies and interests and, more".

On the other hand, until now Facebook has not explained in more detail the possibility of children and teenagers being victims of adult bullying on Instagram.

This is because several parents' advocates hope that Facebook will not continue with Messenger Kids. They argue that social media harms children's development.

Several parties also criticized the emergence of social media for children because the company was accused of targeting children as their potential market in the future.