County Durham bullying intervention group welcomes Instagram 'teen accounts'
They believe the new 'teen accounts' will improve online safety.
A County Durham bullying intervention group welcomes the introduction of 'teen accounts' on Instagram.
The social media platform is now limiting the content teens can see online and who can contact them.
The new restrictions are designed to address parent concerns and ensure teenagers are spending their time well online.
Val McFarlane, from the bullying intervention group, said: "It's great to see that a social media platform is taking responsibility for what is posted online, what young people can access online, who can speak to them and also giving parents an opportunity to become involved in what their child is doing online.
"Giving parents some control over what their teen is viewing is really, really good because young girls look at these images that they see online and often the photographs have been heavily edited or airbrushed and they have an unreal view of what a body should look like. They're going through their formative years, and they think that there's something wrong with them. This can lead to eating disorders and other mental health issues.
"Children and young people have for a long time lied about their age so that they can access certain social media platforms, and this will often be the case. But because parents can be so involved in this now because they can have some control over it, they can set up the account together with their teen, as soon as they're old enough to have an account, and then they will know exactly how it's being set up. They will know that their child is old enough to access it, and they will also have some control over the content. This is going to make a huge difference for parents.
"This new system where parents can actually have a little bit of control over what their young people are accessing and over who they're speaking to online, because no over-18s will be able to message a teen, is really good. This is a good step and a good way forward and hopefully we'll protect our children and young people from all of the stuff that's out there that we don't want them to access."