Instagram launches 'Parents Guide' for young people's safety

Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform Instagram on Monday launched a "Parents Guide" to help young people be safe on the platform.

The guide is aimed at helping young people to be safe, by informing parents about all the safety features that exist on the platform.

"As the Internet permeates into our lives, especially the lives of young people, parents want to be adequately equipped with the evolving digital landscape," Tara Bedi, Public Policy and Community Outreach Manager for Instagram, India, said in a statement.

"They want to understand how a platform works and feel comfortable with their children leveraging its opportunities for creative expression while knowing the safety tools available to them that enable that expression in a supportive environment," Bedi added.

The guide is a resource from Instagram, available across many countries, to provide parents with a better understanding of the changing digital landscape.

It acts as a conversation starter with their children, as it provides information about tools that exist to keep their child safe on Instagram, the company said, ahead of "Safer Internet Day", which is observed on February 9.

The 2021 version of the guide has inputs from key organisations working actively on the rights and safety of children -- Center for Social Research, Cyber Peace Foundation, Aarambh India Initiative, Young Leaders for Activity Citizenship, It's Ok To Talk and Suicide Prevention India Foundation.

The guide takes into account all the new updates on Instagram, such as 'DM reachability controls', which gives creator and business accounts the control to choose who can message them on Instagram and who can add them to groups on 'Instagram Direct'.

Another example is 'Bulk comment management', which gives people the option to delete comments in bulk, as well as block or restrict multiple accounts that post negative comments. There are others too like 'Support Requests' and 'Emails from Instagram'.