There’s all kinds of content available on social media apps today and it is widely accessible, which makes its hard to keep track of what your children might be browsing through and whether its appropriate for them or not. For the same reason, Instagram has begun the rollout of its Parental Supervision Tools in India to help parents get more involved in their teen’s experiences on Instagram.
The platform is also introducing a Family Center, a new place for parents and guardians to access supervision tools and resources from leading experts. Let’s get you through as to what these features are and how to use them.
What are Parental Supervision Tools and Family Center features on Instagram?
Meta has been working closely with experts, parents, guardians and young people from India, to understand the needs of parents and young people. One of the biggest needs continues to be tools and resources to educate parents about digital services.
This education would allow parents and guardians to help their teens manage their online experiences. In this context, Meta launched Parental Supervision Controls and a Family Center in the US back in March this year and is now rolling it out to India.
The Supervision Tools on Instagram that are available in India starting today will allow parents and guardians to:
- Manage how much time their young people spend on Instagram – It will help young people to manage their time on Instagram by setting screen time limits and scheduling breaks during the day and week. This will ensure your ward isn’t spending too much time on the app.
- View what accounts their young people follow and the accounts that follow their young people – This tool allows you to stay up to date with who your young person connects with on Instagram. It will help you ensure that your younger one isn’t connecting with someone he/she isn’t supposed to.
- Be notified when their young people reports someone – Young people can choose to notify you if they make a report on Instagram, so you can discuss what happened together.
Talking about Family Center, it includes a new education hub where parents and guardians can access resources from experts and review helpful articles, videos and tips on topics like how to talk to young people about social media. Parents can also watch video tutorials on how to use the new Supervision Tools to get the most out of the platform.
From India, the Center includes resources such as the Parents Guide, the ‘Dealing with Exam Stress’ guide developed in partnership with Fortis Mental Health, an LGBTQ guideon being safe online, developed in partnership with the Queer Muslim Project, the guide to ‘Buidling Health Digital Habits’ developed in partnership with the Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC) and guides to creating safe spaces and managing your mental health. The Center will be available in English and Hindi.
How to setup Parental Supervision Tools on Instagram?
Setting up supervision on Instagram requires both a teen and their parent. First, a teen or
their parent sends an invitation for supervision. Then, the invitation must be accepted for
the feature to start. If a teen sends the invitation, they must then confirm that the parent
who accepted the invitation is the correct person to supervise their account.
To be supervised, teens must be 13-17, and the parent must be over 18 years old. Both
teens and parents must have or create an Instagram account to accept the supervision
invitation. Also, only one parent can supervise their child’s account. Now, to send an invitation. Now, to send an invitation to your child, follow the steps below:
Step 1
Tap on your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
Step 2
Tap the Hamburger menu icon at top right and then go to Settings.
Step 3
Now go to the Supervision tab and tap ’Create Invite’.
Step 4
Review the information on your screen and then click ’Create Invite’. Now share the link via an App of your choice by copying it or sharing it through the ’Share sheet’.
Do note that this invite link expires in 48 hours. If its not accepted in 48 hours, you will have to create a new link. You can resend your invite via this same menu and even cancel it if you no longer want to setup supervision.
Read More: TikTok-Inspired Instagram changes track after backlash
How to accept/decline a Supervision Invite on Instagram?
Step 1
Now that you have received the link, tap on it.
Step 2
Tap ’Next’ and click on ’Accept Invite’. If you want to decline the invite, tap on ’Decline’.
Step 3
When you accept/decline the invite, the person will be notified of the same. If the invite is sent by a parent, the supervision begins as soon as the teen accepts the invite. However, if a teen invites their parent to supervise their account, once the parent accepts the invite, the teen must confirm that it’s the correct parent.
Conclusion
This was our guide on how you can setup the Supervision Tools feature on Instagram as a parent and as a teen as well. This can be a really helpful feature for those parents who want to keep tabs on how apps like Instagram are affecting their child’s lifestyle and keep everything in control.