The teen accounts will focus on giving teenagers between 13 and 17 years of age an age-appropriate Instagram experience.
Changes will include features such as sensitive content restrictions, default private accounts, limited interactions with strangers and time limit reminders.
There will also be a new sleep mode, where all notifications will be muted between 10pm and 7am and auto-replies to messages will be on.
The Phone Pledge, a local group advocating against giving children access to phones and, in turn, social media, was formed based on research showing negative effects of both on children.
Stephanie Chalis, founder of The Phone Pledge, said the announcement of the teen accounts felt calculated.
“I know a few people are suspicious of the timing of the announcement, so closely after (Prime Minister Anthony) Albanese said he would put forth a bill for a social media ban,” she said.
“My thought is Meta and other social media platforms are getting a lot of heat at the moment, not only from Australia but also particularly France and the US.
“Regardless of the timing, I don’t think they are making the change because they have this great drive to keep our kids safe, I think they are making the changes to try and minimise their losses of underage users.”
As part of the new features, Instagram has also shared tools that parents can use to monitor their child’s activity on the platform.
When the supervision feature is enabled on a child's account, parents can see who their child has been chatting to, set daily time limits, block out specific times such as school hours and see what topics their child has been viewing.
The new changes are set to roll out in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia over the next three months before Meta begin applying the same changes in the European Union.
Although the changes are a step in the right direction, Ms Chalis said it is important that parents remain alert about their kids' social media use.
“Any change that makes things safer for our kids is a good thing,” she said.
“At the same time, it’s important that we are cautious not to let it lull parents into a sense of security or to think they can take their foot off the pedal in terms of monitoring their child's social media.”
For more information on the teen insta accounts visit https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/instagram-teen-accounts/
11°C