Facebook owner Meta will allow parents to keep track of how much time their kids are spending on Instagram and will soon launch parental monitoring features on Quest Virtual Reality headsets, the agency said Wednesday. The new parental controls are part of Meter’s commitment to protecting children using its social media apps, after a whistleblower leaked internal documents that showed the company was aware that Instagram had caused body problems with some teenage girls.
Following the uproar over the leaked documents, Instagram chief Adam Moseri testified before Congress in December, where he questioned the safety of children online.
Instagram surveillance tools will be available in the United States from Wednesday and will spread worldwide in the coming months, Meta said.
Parents will be able to see what accounts their children follow and set time limits for how much their children spend on the app.
In May, Meta will launch a dashboard that includes monitoring tools for its Quest headsets and automatically block teens from downloading age-appropriate apps on Quest.
In both Instagram and Quest, teenage consent is required under parental supervision, Meta said in a blog post.
The company added that it plans to eventually allow parents to oversee their children’s activities across all Meter services from a central location.
Thomson Reuters 2022