Picture and video sharing social media platform, Instagram, has announced the launch of the “Take a Break” feature for its teenage users.
In a statement released on Tuesday by the Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, it was stated that the Meta owned company had been working on features to ensure a safe experience for young people using the app.
“We’ll be taking a stricter approach to what we recommend to teens on the app: we’ll stop people from tagging or mentioning teens that don’t follow them, we’ll be nudging teens towards different topics if they’ve been dwelling on one topic for a long time,” the statement read.
Mosseri also announced that the Take a Break feature will be launched today in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, while every other country will have access to it by next year.
According to him, the ‘Take A Break’ feature is to “empower people to make informed decisions about how they’re spending their time,” on the app
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“If someone has been scrolling for a certain amount of time, we’ll ask them to take a break from Instagram, and suggest that they set reminders to take more breaks in the future. We’ll also show them expert-backed tips to help them reflect and reset.
“To make sure that teens are aware of this feature, we’ll show them notifications suggesting they turn these reminders on. We’re encouraged to see that teens are using Take A Break.
We’re launching this feature in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia today, and we’ll bring it to everyone by early next year,” he wrote.
Other features include a new educational hub for parents and guardians, to help them guide and support their teenagers on the app.
In addition, “Parents and guardians will be able to view how much time their teens spend on Instagram and set time limits.”
Teenagers will also have a new option to notify their parents if they report someone, allowing parents the opportunity to talk about it with them.
To achieve a safer space for teens, Mosseri further revealed that the platform is looking at innovative solutions to verify people’s ages on Instagram.
