** A quick note! **

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Instagram recently added “Instagram Maps,” a location feature similar to Snap Maps. Here’s their complete post on the details and changes (scroll down about halfway through): Instagram Maps

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There are two ways to access Instagram Maps:

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1. Go to your Direct Messages
2. Tap the Map image between the search bar and your DMs

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Or

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1. Select your profile
2. Tap the three horizontal lines in the top right corner
3. Scroll down to “Story, live and location”
4. Select “Location Sharing”

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If Instagram Maps are allowed, you can adjust sharing locations to Friends, Close Friends, Only these Friends, or No one. If your child uses Instagram, you can supervise their account (explained below) to lock settings in place.

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Alternatively, you can head to the Settings app on their device (for Apple or Android devices), search for Instagram, and manage location sharing from there, since Instagram Maps requires location permissions from the device itself.

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What is Instagram? 

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Owned by Meta, Instagram is one of the most popular social media apps globally (2B monthly users). 

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On Instagram, people can post images and videos to their own page on their account. Like Snapchat, users can post images and videos on their “Story” as well, which lasts 24 hours. Similar to TikTok, YouTube, and other video apps, there are short, vertical videos. Instagram calls them “Reels” and they are extremely popular. Both Reels and the Explore page pull content based on what Meta’s algorithm thinks you want to see. Instagram can take up a lot of time, and Reels, especially, can be addictive.

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Instagram users can link their Facebook account to their Instagram, which allows them to post content on both platforms simultaneously. Most kids don’t use Facebook, but Meta makes it very easy to create a Facebook account using an existing Instagram account.

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Like all social media, there are two sides. Good things such as creativity, connection with friends, funny memes, and a way to learn and explore. And harmful things like sexual content, sextortion, predators, and harmful online communities. 

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Our complete app review will help you determine if Instagram is right for your kids and how to enable layers of protection while using the app. 

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What do Parents Need to Know about Instagram’s Parental Controls?

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Here are some helpful definitions:

• Family Center: Meta’s hub for parental controls. Family Center allows parents to supervise Teen Accounts. Once a Teen Account becomes a Supervised Account, the parent can lock in settings. 
• Teen Accounts: Instagram, Facebook, and Facebook Messenger accounts aged 13-17. This age bracket enables a “protected experience” by default (see below).
• Supervised Account: For Instagram, this is a Teen Account that has requested parental supervision (instructions below). A supervised account requires parental permission to change any settings. The parent can change the settings of the supervised account at any time. 

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How do I set up my child’s first Instagram account?

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First, ensure your child’s account uses the correct birthday. For privacy, consider using their correct year, but maybe not the exact month and day. Using an accurate birthday in Instagram is critical! Here’s why. 

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Remember, Instagram accounts aged 13-17 automatically receive “Teen Account” status, enabling a “protected experience.” Here are the default settings for Teen Accounts:

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• The account will be private (decreasing the risk of interactions with bad actors).)
• The account will restrict messaging to “followers only.” 
• You can disable incoming messages.
• The account will see less sensitive content (it’s not perfect).
• Tags, mentions, and content remixing (using any of the account’s posted content to make more content from) are only available to followers.
• Nudity protection will be active, blurring any nudity sent through messages. Parental consent is required for teens under 16 to change this (apparently, Meta thinks it’s okay for teens 16+ to receive naked images in their messages…).
• The account will not be able to go live on Stories. Parental consent is required for teens under 16 to change this setting.

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Can my child change their default settings without me knowing?

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Yes, these settings are not locked in on a default Teen Account. That’s why Meta created Supervised Accounts, which require parental permission to change settings.

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How to Supervise Your Teen’s Instagram Account

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These are the steps as shown in the video above:

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1. Open Instagram on your child’s account, and go to their profile
2. Tap the three lines in the top right corner
3. Tap “Teen safety settings”
4. Select “Parent or guardian” and then “add parent”
5. Search for your account (you will need to make your own Instagram account if you don’t have one), select your account, and tap “Send Request”
6. Now, on your Instagram account, look for the notification to supervise your teen’s account
7. Select continue
8. You are now supervising your child’s account! Any settings they want to change will be made into a request you must approve

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‍How to Create a Private Account on Instagram:

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If your child already has an account, and you’re not sure if it’s private. Here’s how to check and change it to a private account:

1. Tap your child’s profile picture in the bottom right corner.
2. At the top right of the screen, tap the three stacked horizontal lines.
3. A screen will slide open to the left. At the bottom, click the gear, Settings.
4. Scroll down and tap Privacy.
5. Scroll down and tap Account Privacy.
6. Tap to toggle and enable Private Account.

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**Warning about private Instagram accounts. If your child’s account is older than 17, then anyone can still send them a direct message (DM), unless you RESTRICT DMs, which is possible. Here’s how:

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1. Open Instagram on your child’s account and go to their profile
2. Tap the three lines in the top right corner
3. Scroll down to ”How others can interact with you” and select “Messages and story replies”
4. Select “Message requests” and set this to “No one.”
5. On this same page, under “Who can send you group message requests” set this to “People you follow”
6. Lastly, scrolling down further, toggle on “Hide unwanted message requests”

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NOTE: even if your child has a “private” account, that only protects his or her identity from an unapproved follower. It does not prevent him/her from searching and finding all kinds of content.

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How to Check My Kid’s Followers on Instagram?

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Checking your child’s followers is important. With a private account, no one can follow the account without permission. You can decide how to navigate that permission. Maybe once a quarter, just check who is following them and who they are following. You’ll learn a lot about what your kid loves by seeing who they follow. **Note – checking Followers is also a covert way of knowing if they’ve created a “fake” Instagram account. Kids almost always follow their fake accounts from their “real” accounts.

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• Click their profile in the lower right corner of the bottom menu.
• Click the “Followers” number toward the top.
• Thumb through both “Followers” and “Following” lists with your child.

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Is there Porn on Instagram? 

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Yes. Quite a bit of it. Because it’s built on pictures and videos, there is plenty of pornographic content. Yes, straight-up porn is very easy to find by using hashtags and within Link.

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tree links in user bios. Searches for inappropriate content in hashtags and accounts can easily be hidden by a kid who knows how to erase his search history (profile -> upper right 3 bars -> Settings -> Security -> Clear Search History).

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If your child has an iPhone, keep reading. There’s a critical step you must take for blocking some of the porn on Instagram. Linktree is a way to include web links in the bio of a profile. Porn performers place pornographic Linktree links everywhere, but if you enable the Content Restrictions in Apple’s Screen Time, it will block most of them (Learn more about Apple’s Screen Time here: iOS Parental Controls). This image shows you how Screen Time blocks the Linktree porn:

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How to Report Pornographic or Abusive Content on Instagram:

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1. To report the entire account – tap “…” in the top right corner of the offending user profile.
2. Tap “Report.” Then, “It’s Inappropriate.” Then, “I believe this account violates Instagram’s community guidelines.”
3. Then follow whatever path best fits the reason for you reporting the account.
4. To report individual posts – tap “…” in the upper, right corner of the post.
5. Tap “Report.” Then, “It’s Inappropriate.” Then, follow whatever path best fits the reason for you reporting the post.
6. To report individual comments – swipe left on the comment itself and tap the exclamation mark in the stop sign.
7. Tap “Abusive Content,” and then follow whatever path best fits the reason for you reporting the comment.

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Be aware of what passes Instagram’s Community Guidelines. It’s shocking. We’ve reported plenty of pornography on Instagram and they typically take it down quickly. But, with a simple, well-positioned flower over a nipple, or a slight blurring of certain private parts, an otherwise nude person isn’t flagged as inappropriate.

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Instagram Stories are wildly popular. For parents, just know that a Story (which is a feature they stole from Snapchat), is content that is only available for 24 hours. If there’s a colorful ring around their profile picture, then they have posted a Story.

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How to Control Privacy for Instagram Stories:

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• Click your profile in the lower right corner, then the three, horizontal lines in the upper right corner.
• Click “Settings,” then, “Privacy,” then “Story.”
• From there, toggle and select things as needed for your situation.

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Hashtags are huge, fun, and really hard to control. The hashtag feature just creates a repository of specific themes for people to troll, i.e., #girls, #kikme, #snapchatnudes, etc. Hashtags are where the porn is.

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Instagram can be harmful to self-esteem. This app can have significant impacts on the self-esteem of young girls, who see what perfectly posed photos gain the most attention, and fall victim to comparing themselves to others. Comments posted by others can be affirming or damaging.

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Instagram is on the front lines of cyberbullying, and parents often miss the signs. Some bullying is overt, through malicious posts. But, sometimes, it’s below the surface and hard to detect. This is often done through fake accounts (called “Finstas“), by commenting on pictures, or by excluding someone from being tagged on a group photo. The July 2018 feature release of questions asked on Stories can be used to be mean, although these questions do include the username, which helps prevent anonymous cruelty.

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How to Block a User on Instagram:

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1. Tap the offending user’s username or profile photo. This will take you to their profile.
2. Tap the “…” in the top right corner.
3. Tap “Block” in red.

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How to Hide Offensive Comments by default on Instagram posts:

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• Tap your profile in the lower right corner of the bottom menu.
• Tap the three bars in the top right corner of your profile.
• Then, “Settings,” then “Privacy,” then “Comments.”
• Under “Filters,” toggle on “Hide Offensive Comments.”

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Just in October 2019, Instagram’s new Restrict feature is now live. This anti-bullying tool is meant to help users who are reluctant to block or report problematic followers. If a user restricts a follower, their comments will not be made public (but they won’t know that). The follower will also not be able to see when the user is active or has read their direct messages. A user can un-restrict someone at any point too.

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How to RESTRICT a User on Instagram:

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1. Swipe left on one of their comments.
2. Select “Restrict [user].”
3. After you’ve enabled “Restrict” on someone’s account, their comments on your posts will only be visible to them (meaning, they won’t know they’ve been Restricted, which is the whole point of the feature).

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How to Control Who Comments on Your Instagram Posts:

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• Tap your profile in the lower right corner of the bottom menu.
• Tap the three bars in the top right corner of your profile.
• Then, “Settings,” then “Privacy,” then “Comments.”
• From there, set the toggles how you see fit for your situation.

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How to Turn Off All Comments on Your Instagram Posts:

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• Tap one of your posts.
• Tap the “…” in the upper-right corner.
• Select “Turn off Commenting.” It’s that easy!

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UK Father blames Instagram for the death of his teen daughter due to the abundance of self-harm content. Since this accusation in January 2019, Instagram seems to have cleaned up a lot of the junk. But it’s still there.

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CNN named Instagram the #1 social platform for child grooming on March 1, 2019. Our own testing using a public, teen account proved harrowing. If you want to learn more, please read our viral post.

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Related post: 4 Ways Pedophiles Exploit Instagram to Groom Kids

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Instagram will turn all videos under 15 minutes long into Reels. If a user’s account is public, then any Reel of theirs can show up in other users’ feeds as recommended content. Public reels can also be used by other users and remixed (where a user can add their own clips to already published Reels).

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Other Miscellaneous Instagram Features:

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• Voice direct messages: users can now send voice DMs (direct messages) up to one minute long.
• 4-way video calling: Instagram Direct now allows users to video-chat with up three friends (four total people).
• Disappearing live videos and messages. Instagram has disappearing live video and messages in order to keep pace with its primary rival, Snapchat. This feature is for single messages or images and will show in your chat that there was a disappearing chat.
• Vanish Mode: As of October 2020, Vanish Mode in direct messages is available. Users can choose whether to have the messages disappear after they are seen or when the chat is closed. There will be no record of the chat or that Vanish Mode was used.
• Would you like to download all of your Instagram content? Follow these instructions laid out by TechCrunch.
• Increased website functionality.  Instagram has made updates to increase the amount of Instagram content when accessed from a web browser. Direct messages can now be sent and received from the website. Live Streams are also viewable from the web.

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How to mitigate how much Instagram tracks you. 

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If you are concerned about how Instagram (technically it is parent company Facebook) tracks every single thing on and off Instagram that your child (or you!) sees, then you will want to read this article from Wired about how to stop them a little bit. The tl;dr (too long; didn’t read) version: there isn’t a lot you can do except to delete the app. First, you can delete some of your data, like search history or contacts uploaded from your phone. Second, you can turn off your location through your phone’s settings. Third, you can control ad preferences on Instagram through Facebook. We wrote a Master List of Privacy Settings for Everything that includes a link to get to Facebook ad preferences.

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Age verification testing.

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Instagram is testing age verification in the United States for users under 18 years old who change their age to over 18 years old. Users will be asked to submit a photo ID. They may also be asked to have other users over 18 years vouch for their age or submit a video selfie that will be assessed by artificial intelligence to determine age.

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Bottom Line: Is Instagram Safe for Kids?

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Due to COPPA, we discourage middle school usage, but from a practical perspective, we know that many parents are going to allow it. Parents, please know the risks and parent accordingly. If you’ve read the information above, you are now plenty informed about what your children might be exposed to. Be sure to set up a supervised account for them, using their birthday, so the default teen settings are in place. 

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This is where monitoring software like BARK or Covenant Eyes could be a great fit. They are the only 2 solutions that give you any insight into Instagram activity on Android.

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However, inappropriate content will always be on Instagram. So, here are a few relational tips to keep your child protected on Instagram:

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1. Continue checking in frequently about what they experience on Instagram.
2. Ask them specifically if they have any private, fake, extra accounts. Let them know what your rules are related to having multiple accounts.
3. Create your own Instagram account to get familiar with the app. For brand new Instagram users, you might consider following their account, but this can be a big ding on trust. Be careful with this step.
4. Ensure you’ve had conversations with your kids about everything, including pornography, predators, and drugs. All are abundant on Instagram.‍

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Even with those controls locked in place, and these conversations happening frequently, we still believe Instagram is an age 16+ app when you weigh all of the features and risks above.

What if I have more questions? How can I stay up to date?

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Two actions you can take!

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1. Subscribe to our tech trends newsletter, the PYE Download. About every 3 weeks, we’ll share what’s new, what the PYE team is up to, and a message from Chris.
2. Ask your questions in our private parent community called The Table! It’s not another Facebook group. No ads, no algorithms, no asterisks. Just honest, critical conversations and deep learning! For parents who want to “go slow” together. Become a member today!

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