Facebook to launch Instagram for kids 13 years and younger

As parents, our number one job is to protect our kids from predators on social media. When joining any social media platform, you are required to enter your birthday. Kids younger than 13 can’t join because they don’t meet the cut-off date. So children have to lie about their age to join so they could hang out with their friends.

Which sadly is a very serious safety issue as young kids are innocent and don’t truly understand how predators work. Facebook, Instagram, and all the other social media platforms do their best to block predators from joining but aren’t 100% foolproof.

This week, in a blog post titled, “Continuing to make Instagram safer for the youngest members of our community,” Facebook announced they are planning to launch a version of Instagram (IG) for children under the age of 13. Facebook claimed the new platform would allow kids to safely use Instagram in a parent-controlled environment.

“Protecting young people on Instagram is important to us. Today, we’re sharing updates on new features and resources as part of our ongoing efforts keep our youngest community members safe. We’re also providing an update on our work to understand age in a way that helps keep people — especially young people — safe. We have dedicated teams focused on youth safety, and we work closely with experts to inform the features we develop,” Instagram wrote.

In a separate report, Vishal Shah, Instagram’s vice president of product, wrote on an employee message board, “I’m excited to announce that going forward, we have identified youth work as a priority for Instagram and have added it to our H1 priority list”

Shah added: “We will be building a new youth pillar within the Community Product Group to focus on two things: (a) accelerating our integrity and privacy work to ensure the safest possible experience for teens and (b) building a version of Instagram that allows people under the age of 13 to safely use Instagram for the first time.”

According to the report, the development of the new site/app will be overseen by the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, and Pavni Diwanji who oversaw the development of YouTube Kids. Their goal is to not only make it safer for our kids but also harder for adults to follow kids and message them.

The new safety measure is a step in the right direction by the social media giant. However, age verification and safety still remain a big concern for parents.