Striking the right balance of giving young people all the things on the platform while also maintaining the safety has become the priority of Instagram.

It’s, for this reason, the company is constantly rolling out features to shield the security of teen users that use the platform.

“Creating an experience on Instagram that’s safe and private for young people, but also fun comes with competing challenges. We want them to easily make new friends and keep up with their family, but we don’t want them to deal with unwanted DMs or comments from strangers. We think private accounts are the right choice for young people, but we recognize some young creators might want to have public accounts to build a following.”- mentioned Instagram.

In one of our previous article, we discusses the same about how Instagram decided to put account to private if a user is under 16.

Not only this, the feature also made it harder for potential suspicious accounts to find young people.

However, this time the company has limited the options advertisers have to reach young people with their ads. 

According to the new rules, advertisers would be able to target ads to people under 18 based on ONLY their age, gender, and location.

This means that the initially available options such as those based on interests or their activity on other apps and websites will no longer be available to advertisers.

Instagram further mentioned- “We believe in showing people relevant ads so they can discover and purchase products that are interesting to them. In order to show people the most relevant ads, advertisers choose the types of people they want to see their ads. That could include choosing to show their ads to people with certain interests (like basketball) or based on information that they – or other partners – share with us about their activity on their website and apps. That’s information like whether someone put a certain pair of shoes in their shopping cart or browsed for a new summer grill.”

Although Instagram provides ways with which users can control the type of ads they are shown on the platform such as through controls within the ad settings, the youth advocates think the younger people are not well equipped to make this decision.

And since Instagram agrees with this thought, the company took this precautionary approach so it could limit how advertisers reach young people on its platforms.

That being said, when a teen turns 18, Instagram notifies him about the targeting options that advertisers can now use and also the tools within the ad settings from where they can control their ad experience.

Janice Richardson (International advisor at Insight SA) praised Instagram mentioning-

“Instagram’s strategy to proactively weed out potential predators is a welcome innovation; teens have a right to explore their social selves freely without having to worry about predators lurking in the shadows. Whilst teens are generally aware of the risks in sharing personal information, they are often less ‘street savvy’ when it comes to privacy settings. Defaulting young people into private accounts gives them time to adapt and learn to manage their privacy without restricting their freedom of choice in any way..”

Instagram this time went way ahead in terms of safety and security than one could have ever imagined.

And the best part, it is continuously working day in and out to do it even more for its young members while also maintaining the right balance so they could enjoy on the platform.

What do you say?

Could it be any better?

Let me know in the comments down below about your views, or any suggestion.

And please do share this article if you found it helpful!

Till then?

See you next time!

Bye-bye!

P.S.- Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss any updates!