Instagram is growing fast. Considering how big the social media giant is right now, it’s understandable that people of all ages enjoy the app, including even kids. But like anything related to the internet, the social media site can become a dangerous place for your child if measures are not taken to protect them from it. The best way to make sure no harm comes to your child when using Instagram is to set up Instagram parental controls.
Things about Instagram every parent should know
Is my child eligible for Instagram?
We can’t say much here since every child is different. You know your child better than anyone, so you should make the call of whether your child should be on Instagram or not. Read on below to get your mind to the right decision.
What’s the age range for creating an Instagram account?
The problem with controlling what your child sees on Instagram is that you cannot have direct access to your child’s account. Instagram has some laws put into place, and the one in privacy says that an owner should not give access to their account to anyone, including parents.
The minimum age for having an authorized account on Instagram is 13 years old. If your child is an authorized owner, you will have to work with him/her to get security measures taken on their account.
What parental control steps does Instagram offer?
Instagram does have parental controls, but there is a problem here. Yes, it’s true parental controls will be able to restrict what type of content reaches your child, but the problem is that most of these settings can be reverted.
How to Set Up Instagram Parental Control
Here is a complete guide for setting up a parental control system within your child’s account for safety purposes.
Private account: One of the first things you could do is to set the child’s account on private. Every account is public by default when created, so to enable parental controls, you need to switch it to private.
As soon as you change your child’s account to private, the account is cut off from the community’s rest. Only those who have followed your child, who are mostly friends, can see what your child shares, and other than them, no one can see what your child posts.
To set the account to private, you need to navigate your profile by tapping the profile icon located at the bottom menu and then touching the three dots. From the menu, choose Private Account.
Removing unnecessary people: Your child’s account will no longer be visible to anyone outside your child’s follower list since you set the account private. Now it’s time to clean the followers on Instagram and see if there is someone particularly suspicious, stalking your child’s profile. If you want this person to stop, all you need to do is remove those unnecessary Instagram followers who you think don’t need to know your children’s excessive details. You can start removing those Instagram followers just by a single tap on the list of followers and go to the follower profile you want to remove. After that, try clicking on the three dots and click remove.
Abusive or inappropriate comments: A child’s psychology works a little more sensitively than yours. So, when anybody appreciates you, you get happy, whereas your little fellow can get twice as happy as you do when appreciated. However, it works the same with the negative comments; they can completely ruin a day. Instagram provides you with an option for censoring the offensive comments by simply blocking them.
You have to go to their profile and click on those three dots, click on the comment control and click on the ‘Hide Offensive Comment’ option to enable it. The privacy protocol by Instagram works through scanning the offensive comments under any post. Also, Instagram is adding more and more to its protocol to strengthen it.
Unfollow offensive celebrities: The major thing you have to do for parental control set up is to delete the celebrities your child has followed that usually post offensive or adult content. If you want your child not to see any activity by that account then unfollow it by going to that profile and turn followed into the following option by clicking it once.
Turn off comments: If you don’t want your child to see specific comments for any post within your child’s account, try turning off the comments. This feature will help you restrain the comment section. You can achieve it by clicking the post and tapping the three dots, after which you’ll see ‘Turn Off comments’ from the options.
Blocking: If your child thinks that an Instagram account is inappropriate, then luckily, Instagram provides you with an option for blocking the user. This will help you a lot like that particular follower will be effectively hidden and unable to see your profile.
Go to his profile, tap on three dots on the top right, and then choose the blocking option for blocking any user. Give the reasoning, and your desires account will be blocked.
Reporting: If your child has a follower who posts repeated pictures of something hurtful or will hurt any community in many ways, try reporting it. This way, you can have good relations with the follower and remove hurtful content from Instagram.
You can try reporting any post by opening it and tapping on the three dots located at the top right, click report, and choose why you’re reporting the post.
Temporary disable: Lastly, at any point in the parental control setup, you think Instagram is inappropriate for your child in any way, then try dismantling it for a certain period. Instagram gives you two major options; initially, you can disable your child’s account or go straight for deleting that account.
These are some steps and tricks for a parental control setup within your child’s Instagram account. This will help your child grow as a better person and have a childish brain with censored thoughts.
