Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms. Over the years, it has grown incredibly popular among teenagers. The platform has gone from posting pictures with family and friends to creating story highlights and scrolling on reels. It has now become a huge platform for teens to post and share content which is unfortunate as Instagram has announced upcoming updates that would make that more difficult.
On Sept. 17, Instagram announced they would start enforcing new restrictions on minors using the app. Anyone under the age of 18 will automatically have a private account to ensure the only people viewing their profiles are their followers as well as having their parents or guardian monitoring their accounts.
This is incredibly controversial as there are many questions that emerged from this news;
would this really work when people can just lie about their age? Does this also apply to child celebrities whose parents manage their accounts or can they still have public accounts? What would happen if anyone was caught lying about their age in order to have a public profile? All of these are questions that have yet to be answered which has caused the subject to be even more controversial.
As avid Instagram users, students of WJ as well as the Pitch staff will likely be affected by the new policy.
It’s obvious many people will end up lying about their age in order to not have limitations on their accounts. Nevertheless, Instagram came out with a statement addressing the situation. They said they would ensure teens would not be able to lie and have methods to ensure this. Despite these efforts, many teens will still find a way around restrictions as they likely will do anything for their accounts to stay public as well as to avoid any of the other restrictions.
Nowadays, it is extremely popular to become a social media influencer; especially in your teen years as it can be an easy way to make money and free PR packages. Given all the ways teens may profit from using Instagram and the many ways they can claim their parents are managing the account, Meta is going to have a hard time distinguishing which accounts to make private. There are many loopholes people are already thinking of including, having a parent help manage or claim the account and many more. These restrictions are going to have a hard time being put in place and upheld by teens.
