Instagram Teens: is this the solution teenagers really need?
Through its launch of Instagram Teens, Instagram promises to create a safe environment for teenagers by introducing age restrictions. But is it actually going to improve the mental health of young people? And is the feature that allows parents to monitor their teenagers’ use of Instagram even legal?
Simone van der Hof, Professor of Law and Digital Technology, discussed her views of Instagram Teens with Dutch daily newspaper NRC. She questions whether introducing age verification will be effective: ‘Monitoring Instagram use among children under the age of 13 is already not happening as it should be. How effective will Instagram be in establishing the age of older teenagers?’
Professor van der Hof describes the parental supervision feature as ‘problematic’ from a privacy perspective. She refers to Article 16 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that children have the right to data protection. ‘Meta [the parent company of Instagram] needs to respect young people’s privacy more,’ adds Professor van der Hof, arguing that teenagers can decide for themselves which information they want to share with their parents.
Read the full NRC article (in Dutch, €) here.
Also see the article 'Norway wants a minimum age limit for social media, but will that work?' (in Dutch) on the NOS.
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