Instagram's supervision is a safety feature that allows parents to control their children’s account.
It allows parents to approve posts and comments before they’re posted on the app. The app also lets parents keep tabs on their children’s account, including who they follow and what content they watch.
Instagram's supervision is a great tool for monitoring your children’s online activity, but it can be tricky to use.
To get the most out of Instagram supervision, it’s important to understand how the tool works and what you can do with it.
In this guide, we’ll explain how Instagram parental supervision works, including how you can use it to keep your child safe on the app. We’ll also cover what else you can do as a parent to ensure your child is protected on Instagram.
What Is Instagram Supervision?
Instagram Supervision is a parental control feature introduced by Instagram in October 2022 which allows parents and guardians to monitor the activity of their children on the app.
Supervision is built into the Instagram app, not a third-party app, and is offered to teens aged 13 to 17.
Both the parent and teen must agree to participate in Supervision and must have the latest version of the Instagram app.
With Supervision, parents can track followers, account settings, and screen time on the app. The supervision can be disabled by either the parent or teen at any time.
With supervision, parents can closely monitor their child's social media use and avoid potential hazards such as online bullying or sexting. Supervision makes it easier for parents to create a safe social media environment for their children and provides a balance between parental supervision and freedom for teens.
How Instagram Supervision Works
Teens must agree to be supervised by their parents or guardians and must provide a valid age-verification form. This form is used to confirm that a person is of the age specified on their account.
In order to access supervision on Instagram, teens must opt in and cannot be opted-in by default.
If you have blocked your parents or guardians on Instagram, you cannot send them an ‘Instagram Parental Control invitation’ to access supervision.
Supervision is voluntary and not mandatory. As with any online activity, supervision should be tailored to each teen's needs and circumstances.
Parents and guardians can use parental controls to limit access to specific content on Instagram, such as images of violence or disturbing material.
Additionally, they can set time limits for how much time a teen spends on the app, monitor their device usage remotely using parental controls, or block individual devices from accessing the app using app-blocking tools.
Finally, they can use safe search features to screen out content that may be inappropriate for their teen.
In summary, supervision on Instagram provides an opportunity for families and guardians to continue having a digital presence together while also keeping tabs on their teens' online activity.
How to Use Supervision on Instagram
To set up supervision, you’ll need to first access your child’s account on Instagram. To do this, you will need the account password and a phone number where you can reach your child or have them call you if they encounter any issues on the app. Remember that there is a possibility to buy Instagram accounts from marketplaces like Social Tradia. So you have to check if your kid has another account.
Once inside the account, you'll need to go to Settings > Account > Supervision. Here, you can choose how much time to spend with supervision, as well as set days of the week that supervision is active.
You can also use parental control apps for additional safeguards. These apps allow you to set limits and monitor your child's online activity in detail.
They also help prevent access to inappropriate content and let you block specific websites or app features on your kid's device.
Lastly, monitoring your child's online presence is vital in ensuring safety on Instagram.
Supervision can help keep children safe and secure on social media, but it also gives parents control over what their children are exposed to online.
If used correctly, supervision on Instagram can help young people develop healthy social media habits and make better decisions about online privacy and safety.
What Else to Do to Keep Your Kid Safe on Instagram
Apart from using this feature, there are other simple ways that you can use to protect your children from inappropriate content on Instagram. We will examine some of them below.
- Mute inappropriate account, doing this you can control the accounts appearing on their Instagram feed and explore
- Switch their account to private so not everyone is able to follow your child
- Use comment control to determine who can comment on their posts
- Use sensitive content control to manage the content showing on their feed
- Hide comments, so comments includes offensive words and emojis won’t be shown to your child
- Prepare a custom word list, doing this you can determine what words you don’t want to be shown on your child’s Instagram feed
Conclusion
Instagram supervision is a great way to ensure that your kid uses the app safely. If you find that your kid is overusing the app or interacting with people who are a bad influence on them, you can block them or report their account.
You can also monitor their activities on the app and set time limits for using it. Additionally, you should talk to your kids about their online experiences and keep an eye on their social media accounts.
This will help you understand their social media journey better and give them a safe experience on Instagram.
