Instagram announces parental supervision tools, family center in India

New Delhi: Instagram has announced rollout of its parental supervision tools in India to help parents get more involved in ir teens' experiences on photo-sharing platform, according to a statement.

platform is also introducing a Family Center, a new place for parents and guardians to access supervision tools and resources from leing experts.

move is anor step from Meta to empower parents and keep young people safe online, Instagram's statement said.

This initiative comes amid global concerns around harmful effects of social media on young users, particularly related to body image issues and dictive nature of se apps.

"Meta has been working closely with experts, parents, guardians and young people from India, to understand needs of parents and young people," statement said.

One of biggest needs continues to be tools and resources to educate parents about digital services.

"This education would allow parents and guardians to help ir teens manage ir online experiences. With this context, Meta launched Parental Supervision Controls and a Family Center in US in March this year, and is now rolling it out to India," statement ded.

Natasha Jog, He - Public Policy, Instagram, Facebook India (Meta), said safety of community is of "paramount importance" for Meta.

" supervision tools and Family Center will d to our efforts on keeping young people safe. Our intention is to strike right balance for young people's desire for some autonomy when using Instagram, but also allows for supervision in a way that supports conversations between parents and young people when it is helpful," Jog ded.

Supervision Tools on Instagram will allow parents and guardians to manage how much time young people spend on Instagram. It will help young users manage ir time on Instagram by setting screen time limits and scheduling breaks during day and week.

tools would also allow parents to view what accounts ir children follow and accounts that follow m.

"Allows you to stay up to date with who your young person connects with on Instagram," statement said.

It would also enable parents to be notified when young users in family reports someone.

"Young people can choose to notify you if y make a report on Instagram, so you can discuss what happened toger," statement ded.

Meta will be working with Kidsstoppress.com, India's leing and trusted discovery platform for parenting needs, to engage with parents and spre awareness of tools.

On Instagram, parents and guardians can send invitations to ir teens to initiate supervision tools.

"Over next few months we'll roll out ditional Supervision Tools and features in Family Centre," statement said.

Family Center includes a new education hub where parents and guardians can access resources from experts and review helpful articles, videos and tips on topics like how to talk to young people about social media. Parents can also watch video tutorials on how to use new Supervision Tools to get most out of platform, statement said.

Meta will be working with Yuvaa, a youth media and insights company, to drive awareness about se resources as well. Center will be available in English and Hindi.

Big social media firms have drawn flak in past over hate speech, instances of user harm, misinformation and fake news circulating on ir platforms.

At times, concerns have also been flagged over digital platforms acting arbitrarily, while studies have also highlighted teen mental health effects arising from social media phenomenon, particularly so from photo-sharing apps.

India brought in tougher IT rules last year, mandating large digital platforms (with over 50 lakh users) to publish compliance reports every month, mentioning details of complaints received and action taken.

government is also in midst of formulating new social media norms that propose to give users a grievance appeal mechanism against arbitrary content moderation, inaction, or takedown decisions of big tech companies.