Meta announced that from today (June 14) parents in the UK will be able to supervise their children’s Instagram and Quest 2 accounts, such as approving purchases, scheduling breaks, and more.
If you’ve been wanting to grasp some understanding of how your kids use Meta’s apps on iOS and Android, the new tools launching will be able to give you an idea of what they look at, or what they’re trying to buy every day.
When the features appear in users’ Instagram Settings section, you’ll be able to do the following:
- Connect and supervise their teen’s account
- See who their teen follows and who follows them
- See more information when their teen shares that they’ve reported something
- Set daily limits for how long their teen can spend on Instagram
- Schedule breaks for specific times
There’s also supervision for VR apps on the Meta Quest 2. Initially announced in March, users can approve purchases, check the screen time of the headset from the Oculus app, view their friends list, and more.
There’s plenty to be found here too, such as one feature where it encourages teens to step away from certain topics on Instagram, further looking after their wellbeing.
These controls are an encouraging step from Meta to give parents more control over what their children see – but teens may not be happy with these new features.
Analysis: The cringe could be too much for some
Creating a safe experience for teens on a social platform has become increasingly important as the years have passed, especially with how easy it’s become to create an account on Instagram and other social media platforms.
But it’s a two-way street when it comes to controls like this. Kids want to feel independent, especially in their teens, and so there may be some pushback to the controls that parents will be able to use.
To Meta’s credit, all of these new features are useful and fully justified in the fake content that’s filling most of the social platforms in recent years. But the next step may be to show teens, through the Explore tab perhaps, that it’s okay to grant their parents some control over their accounts.
However, if you’re a parent struggling to find a gift for your son or daughter, but you want to make sure that they’re looking at the right content, there are some great Quest 2 deals before the school break.