Instagram’s New Parent’s Guide Helps Parents Offer a Safe Experience For Their Teens

• Instagram is looking to make the platform more parent-friendly.
• The social network has released a Parent's Guide to educate parents and guardians on how best to protect their teens who use the platform.
• The Parent's Guide has been devised in collaboration with experts in social media and education.

We all are aware of the potential for youngsters, especially teenagers, getting exposed to some of the negative effects of social media. Instagram happens to recognize this fact and Chief Operating Officer, Marne Levine, took to the social network's blog to announce the availability of a Parent's Guide to educate parents on the options to create a safe experience for teens using the platform.

Instagram is taking a series of measures to ensure a safe and positive environment for its users. Features like comment control, time management, and reporting unwanted interactions have made the social network much more teen-friendly. The Facebook-owned social network has published a guide titled, "Know how to talk with your teen about Instagram: A Parent's Guide" to help parents better understand the service and manage how their kids use the platform. The guide educates parents on various safety features such as the privacy options available in the app, the ability to block accounts and filter comments, and the time management features.

It's not just about routine advice, though. Instagram has partnered with social media and education expert Ana Homayoun to create a set of questions, which every parent can ask their teen to better judge for themselves how they want the social network to be utilized. Questions range from simple ones like 'What do you like about Instagram?' to something more nuanced such as 'Have you ever felt uncomfortable with something you saw or an experience you had online?'. Instagram has also partnered with various organizations such as National PTA, Scholastic, ConnectSafely, National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA), GLSEN, Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, PFLAG, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Girl Scouts of the USA, and PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center for parenting advice.

This new initiative by Instagram will surely be welcomed by everyone who wishes their teens are protected online while still reaping the benefits of accruing a social media following. Recently, there were reports of Russian hackers targeting Instagram accounts worldwide. Exercising parental control will definitely help shield vulnerable users such as kids and teenagers from the perils of the online world.

What do you think of Instagram's new parent-friendly initiative? Let us know in the comments below. Also, to get instant tech updates, follow TechNadu’s Facebook page, and Twitter handle.