JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Meta has announced sweeping changes to how kids and teens use Instagram. The company today unveiled Teen Accounts. It's a series of new features aimed at boosting child safety. But these new features come after years of criticism and even lawsuits over how Instagram can lead to a host of dangers. For more, we're joined by NPR's Bobby Allyn. Hey, Bobby.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: All right, Bobby, let's just get right into it. Tell us about this new service, Teen Accounts, on Instagram. And what exactly is going to change for young users?
ALLYN: You know, quite a bit, Juana, is going to be changing. Starting this week, the Instagram accounts of teens are going to become private practically overnight, right? That means they can only get messages with people that they already follow. And if they're 15 or younger, they can't turn off that setting unless they have a parent's permission. There are many more restrictions that are being unveiled. Offensive words and other content that isn't age-appropriate is going to be filtered out, and kids will be reminded to put their phones down after an hour of using them. I talked to a Meta executive about these changes, Naomi Gleit. She's the company's head of product.
NAOMI GLEIT: Parents are now going to have the ability to see how much time their teens are spending online, who's messaging them, who's following them, who they're following - a lot of the information that can really start some of these really important conversations around how their teens are using Instagram.
ALLYN: And, you know, Juana, this is really unusual for a social media company to do something that is going to limit growth, limit engagement for a very important group of people - right? - Instagram's youngest users. And Instagram's top executive has come out and said these changes might hurt their bottom line, and he said he's OK with that.
SUMMERS: And, Bobby, I have to say, though, you know this better than anyone. These concerns that we're talking about here - they're not new. We've been talking about them for years. So why is the company choosing to make this change right now?
ALLYN: So when I asked Meta, they wouldn't spell that out directly. But there are a few things going on, and let me explain that. So first, Meta is facing lawsuits from dozens of states over things like cyberbullying, you know, self-harm linked to Instagram. The app has been accused of fueling the teen mental health crisis and making kids addicted to the app. And, you know, Instagram has also been seen as sort of a breeding ground for sexual predators, right? And this has been in the news a lot, and it's been very harmful for the company.
And this pressure has really hit a fever pitch, right? Congress has been working really hard to pass something called the Kids Online Safety Act, also known as KOSA, and it's aimed at holding social media platforms accountable for some of the harms young people are encountering on the app. I talked to Jason Kelley. He's with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and he says the changes are an attempt to get ahead of even more regulations.
JASON KELLEY: A lot of the time, a company like Meta responds to legislative concerns by doing a lot of the legislation's requirements on their own.
ALLYN: Right. Kelley says Meta would much rather be the one enforcing the rules as opposed to a government agency, which would be able to slap Meta with fines or drag them to court and force changes. So Meta here put these changes out and is going to be its self-enforcer, and some critics say that's not very good oversight.
SUMMERS: Bobby, I've got to ask you, as someone who has a teenager at home and is thinking about how she and her friends might respond to something like this, have you heard anything about how young Instagram users are taking this news?
ALLYN: Yeah. Instagram users have turned to social media and have expressed a variety of opinions. You know, teens who are influencers are very upset because these new settings, including turning their accounts private, will limit their reach. For normal, noninfluencer teens, many are talking on social media about ways to get around some of these restrictions. I mean, teens on Instagram have, for years, lied about their age to create accounts - right? - fake accounts known as Finsta (ph) or using algorithm speak, also known as algospeak (ph), to kind of get around these systems. So teens are talking about that now, and I think it's going to be a cat-and-mouse game.
SUMMERS: NPR's Bobby Allyn. Thank you.
ALLYN: Thanks, Juana. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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