Meta-owned social network Instagram has brought its Teen Accounts to New Zealand which are mandatory for users under the age of 16. The teen account system provides built-in protections, and were introduced for the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia in September last year.
Now they have arrived for New Zealand young Instagrammers and offer features such as accounts being automatic ally set to private, messaging restrictions, and content limits.
One notable addition is Sleep Mode, which silences notifications during night hours.
Parents meanwhile gain enhanced supervision tools, allowing them to monitor their teens' messaging activities and control Instagram usage duration. Furthermore, teens under 16 require parental permission to modify any safety settings.
There is also introduced a personalised content discovery feature, enabling teens to curate their Explore page recommendations around positive interests.
Instagram users under 16 will automatically be placed into restricted accounts designed to enhance online safety.
The measures aim to shield young users from unwanted contact and inappropriate content while maintaining their ability to connect with friends and explore interests safely.
"We know parents want to feel confident that their teens can safely and securely explore and connect online," Mia Garlick, Meta's regional policy director, said as part of the launch.
"The launch of Instagram Teen Accounts in New Zealand is another step in helping to protect young people from unwanted contact and inappropriate content, while also giving parents more tools to set appropriate boundaries and support their teens’ digital experiences.”
"We are committed to continuing to invest in features that prioritise teen safety, ensuring they can focus on what they love in an environment designed for them," Garlick added.
Asked if New Zealand teens will be age-verified in the same manner as under 16s overseas, with video selfies, social vouching and ID cards, a spokesperson for Meta confirmed that they will be.
"In line with today’s announcement, we will begin placing new teen sign-ups into Teen Accounts and notifying existing teen users about these changes, allowing us to transition them into Teen Accounts in the coming weeks," the spokesperson said.
"Teen Accounts will be verified using the same process in all countries including New Zealand. To help ensure teens on Instagram are placed in the appropriate account, we are implementing several measures, including age verification technology," the spokesperson added.
"Since 2022, we have required teens to verify their age through a video selfie or ID check if they attempt to change their birthday from under 18 to 18 or older. Additionally, if a teen updates their birthday to reflect an older age, we require them to verify their age through an ID check or video selfie," the spokesperson said.
In November last year, the Australian government said it would ban young people under the age of 16 from social media. New Zealand does not have a government-mandated age limit, but the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) advises parents to check social media platforms' age limits, as most require users to be at least 13 years old.
Update
A spokesperson for Meta now says the personalised content discovery mentioned above, which enables teens to curate their Explore page recommendations around positive interests will in fact not be available in New Zealand.
8 Comments
Yes, they have either been asked to do this or it is pre-emptive. But, is the reason for this governmental backlash in five eyes countries genuine? Not even during covid lockdowns did they want to censor social media (by age) like this (the peak harm period).
Is this really about child welfare? This has been an issue for over a decade an no one lifted a finger. Or, is it an effort to suppress the youth developing subversive opinions of various western institutions.
That's drawing a long bow I think. There are genuine concerns about the data collection by social networks, from a privacy perspective. However, there does seem to be a strong element of moral panic as well. If anything reaches that stage, something must be seen to be done, or it'll be done for the social network operators.
The Australian Government's bipartisan under 16 ban (passed under "urgency" with minimal consultation) was a lot of things but genuine, honest and well justified moral panic it was not. (The panic part could have been genuine, though.)
There was no rush everyone who had strong moral opinions has sat on their hands for years, it was as good an idea 10 year ago.
Yes, it's a long bow.
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