Instagram defaulting young people into private accounts

Instagram has announced a couple of changes it is making to keep young users safe on its platform. These include defaulting young people into private accounts, making it harder for potentially suspicious accounts to find young people and limiting the options advertisers have to reach young people with ads.

Starting this week, Instagram will default accounts of users under 16 years (or under 18 in certain countries) into a private account when they join the platform. Young people who already have a public account on Instagram will see a notification highlighting the benefits of a private account and explaining how to change their privacy settings.

If you have a private account, people have to follow you to see your posts, Stories and Reels. They also can't comment on your content in those places, and they won't see your content at all in places like Explore or hashtags.

Facebook says it has developed a new technology to find potentially suspicious accounts and make it harder for them to find young people's accounts on Instagram.

"Using this technology, now we won't show young people's accounts in Explore, Reels or Accounts Suggested For You to these adults. If they find young people's accounts by searching for their usernames, they won't be able to follow them. They also won't be able to see comments from young people on other people's posts, nor will they be able to leave comments on young people's posts," the company wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

The changes are initially rolling out in the US, Australia, France, the UK and Japan, with more companies to follow soon.

Lastly, Facebook changing the way advertisers can reach young people with ads. Starting in a few weeks, advertisers will be able to target ads to people under 18 (or older in certain countries) based on their age, gender and location. The changes will apply globally to Instagram, Facebook and Messenger.

"We want young people to enjoy using Instagram while making sure we never compromise on their privacy and safety. We'll continue listening to young people, parents, lawmakers and other experts to build an Instagram that works for young people and is trusted by parents," Facebook said.