Parents Can Now Monitor Their Children's Activities On Instagram Through This New Feature

Instagram answers the concerns of parents of underage users. (photo; doc. instagram)

JAKARTA - Instagram has just answered the concerns of parents of underage or teenage users by bringing a parental control feature to its application.

Instagram has recently faced intense scrutiny over the impact of Meta's social media on teenagers and children. The feature will be part of the new Family Center, where parents can set time limits and access information about their teen's activity in the app.

For now, parents will be able to see a list of the accounts their teen is following, as well as which accounts are following them. Parents will also be notified if their teen reports another user.

Unfortunately, this feature is only available in the United States (US) and parents will only be able to access the parental control feature if the teen has enabled or agreed to use the feature within the app itself.

"Over the next few months we'll be adding additional features, including letting parents set the hours their teen can use Instagram, and the ability for more than one parent to monitor a teen's account," Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said in a blog post. company official quoted from Engadget, Thursday, March 17.

In fact, the new feature was first promised in December last year after Instagram was forced to stop working on an app specifically for children under 13 after a whistleblower disclosed internal research documenting Instagram's impact on teens' mental health.

Mosseri said the new parental control feature will also be coming to Quest headsets in the coming months, so parents can also limit their kids' activities in virtual reality.

At Quest, the surveillance feature will allow parents to limit rated VR content to ages 13 and over and set other limits for VR purchases.

Lastly, Meta is also reportedly working on a Parent Dashboard for the Oculus app, so parents can keep tabs on what their kids are watching and how much time they're spending in VR.