Instagram is launching a new suite of tools to help parents supervise their teens on social media.

The picture-sharing platforms parent company Meta said the tools will help parents protect their teens online – while also allowing young people an element of privacy.

From July 30th, parents will be able to see how ling their children are spending on Instagram, set daily limits and see who they are interacting with.

Instagram has unveiled a new suite of supervision tools for parents and guardians. From the 30th of June, parents will be able to see how long a teen spends on the platform, schedule breaks in their usage, see how they follow and more. pic.twitter.com/8lZZNIAfJc

— Jess Kelly 👩🏻‍💻 (@jesskellynt) June 14, 2022

On Tech Talk with Jess Kelly, Instagram EMEA Director of Public Policy Tara Hopkins said the new tools will help teens talk to their parents about what is happening online.

“What’s really important about it is it can be initiated by both the teen and the parent,” she said. “In both cases the other person does have to accept the invitation.

“The parent does have to have an Instagram account and this is really important. We understand that supervision won’t work if it is imposed upon a teenager.”

Instagram said the new tools will let parents:

• Supervise their teenager’s account
• Set daily limits for how long their teen can spend on Instagram
• Schedule breaks for specific times
• See who their teen follows and who follows them
• See more information when their teen reports something

Ms Hopkins said the new tools cover three main themes - Screen time, Reporting and Connections.

“What screen time means is that the parent of the guardian can see how much time their teenager is spending in Instagram each day,” she said.

“Importantly, they can help their teen manage the time by setting daily time limits and by scheduling breaks – specific periods of time when they don’t wan their teenager to be on Instagram.”

New Instagram parental supervision tools. Image: Instagram

She said the reporting functions will let teens tell their parents “when they have reported someone and what the person has been reported for”.

“We let the parent know what account their teen has reported and what the policy is that has been violated,” she said.

“So, a parent can see their child has reported someone for bullying and harassment on Instagram and they are able to then chat to their young person offline about what has happened, what the experience has been and hopefully, be able to give them help and support in whatever that experience has been.”

New Instagram parental supervision tools. Image: Instagram

The final part is all about knowing who your child is interacting with.

“With these supervision tools, parents and guardians can see who follows their teen, who their teens follow and also get a notification whenever their teens gets a new follower,” said Ms Hopkins.

She said the system lets parents supervise their teenager’s Instagram experience while still allowing their teesn to have private experience on Instagram and some autonomy on social media.

“It does allow the parent to be able to see some of the experience their teens are having on Instagram, “while still allowing their teens to have private experience on Instagram and some autonomy on social media.”

You can listen back to the full interview with Jess Kelly on Tech Talk here: