Leer en Español
The photo social network Instagram, owned by Meta, announced Wednesday three measures that will allow parents in the United States to monitor the activities of their children on the platform, after the controversy unleashed last year regarding the harmful effects it has on teenagers.
As of this Wednesday, American parents can monitor and set limits on the time their children spend on Instagram; receive notifications if minors report someone through the platform, and monitor the accounts they follow or that follow them.
In a post on Meta’s official blog, Instagram head Adam Mosseri reported that, for the moment, the new measures will only be available in the United States, but that he expects to extend them to the rest of the world “in the coming months,” and also apply them to other platforms owned by the company, such as Facebook.
For the time being, it will be the teenagers who will have to initiate the process from their cell phones so that their parents can supervise them, but the company assured a way for parents to request supervision will be available as of June, although minors will still have the last word once the request is received.
At the end of 2021, Meta — which at the time was called Facebook, like the social network — became embroiled in a controversy after a former employee of the company, Frances Haugen, testified before the U.S. Senate that the company puts profits before user safety, and conceals the fact that its platforms are harmful for minors, especially teenagers.
Haugen, who previously leaked internal company documents to The Wall Street Journal, gave the Senate a ruthless portrait of the company and said that during her time working there she came to realize a “devastating truth”: Meta (Facebook) is hiding information from the public and from governments.
