It was Christmas break. A peaceful morning. Bonnie’s* conversation last night with her three sons still hung in her mind. The boys had talked about their plans for the New Year. Her 16-year-old, Colin*, said he wanted to save up his money for a holiday to go visit some friends.
Bonnie noticed that Colin’s light was on now—his bedroom door ajar. She walked upstairs and nudged the door open, asking, “Are you up?”
And that’s when she found her son’s dead body.
Colin is only one of numerous teens who have died by suicide after being sexually extorted on Instagram. A stranger reached out to him on the app, pretending to be a teenage girl. Colin was eventually manipulated into sending a nude image—and from there, the blackmail started.
But what if that stranger could never message Colin to begin with?
Maybe he would still be with his family right now. Maybe he would have been able to take that holiday he wanted, to visit his friends.
Tragically, it’s too late for Colin. But it is not too late for the millions of teens who still use Instagram today.
Which is why we’re celebrating a monumental victory with Instagram that just broke this morning: thanks to new safety changes that YOU joined us in requesting, soon strangers will no longer be able to find and message teens on Instagram!
*Names changed
Instagram Announces “Teen Accounts” with Defaulted Safety Settings
This morning, Instagram announced multiple radical safety changes, most of which YOU directly asked them for through our Dirty Dozen List campaign. The platform will be rolling out new “teen accounts,” which will automatically be set to higher safety settings, including:
- Private Accounts: Teen accounts will automatically be set to private so that the teen must approve new followers and people who don’t follow them can’t see their content or interact with them.
- Restricted Messaging & Interactions: Teens can only be messaged, tagged, or mentioned by people they follow or are already connected to.
- Sensitive Content Restrictions: Teen accounts will automatically be set to the highest content restrictions, to limit their exposure to inappropriate content.
The changes also include prompts for teens to spend less time on the app and automatically turning off notifications at night. In addition to this being helpful for teen mental health and limiting screen time, it is worth noting that many sextortion cases, such as Colin’s, happen overnight when the teen is alone and less able to turn to their family for help.
Even better: Teens who try to change their account age to bypass these restrictions will need to go through an age verification process. And teens who are under 16 will need a parent’s permission to change the settings.
Teen Accounts will take effect within 60 days in the US, UK, Canada and Australia; in the European Union later this year; and will begin rolling out throughout the rest of the world in January.
This Victory Has a Colossal Impact
The impact of these safety updates can’t be overstated. Instagram is the #1 platform where sextortion happens. It is being used by millions of teens worldwide. 68% of U.S. teens 15-17 and 59% of teens 13-17 say they use Instagram.
Now, all these children are better protected from sexual exploitation! You did this. This is your legacy.
Enhanced Parental Controls
In addition to rolling out automated safety features for teen accounts, Instagram will also be giving parents and caregivers more options to supervise and regulate their child’s activity on the app. This will include the ability to:
- See who their child has messaged in the past seven days
- See the topics their child is looking at
- Restrict how much time their child can spend on Instagram each day
- Block their child from using the app during specific time periods (e.g. at night, during the school day)
We are grateful to Instagram for giving parents more power to keep their children safe, and even more grateful that they are automating settings to keep all children safe.
Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) Likely Motivates Instagram’s Changes
It is likely no coincidence that Instagram’s announcement has come at a time when the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is rushing forward with incredible momentum. This crucial child protection bill will be marked up in the House tomorrow—i.e. a time when the bill is studied in detail and amendments may be suggested and voted on. KOSA is the most comprehensive child protection legislation currently pending before Congress. If passed, it will require that ALL online platforms likely to be used by children be designed in a way that keeps them safe.
With KOSA, the kind of changes Instagram made, plus more, can be made a standard across the entire tech industry. The importance of this cannot be overstated.
Scrolling 2 Death and Project STAND created a resource “Faces of Social Media Harm” which shows the children who have died as a result of social media, and explains how KOSA could have helped them. KOSA will literally save lives!
