Instagram and Spotify have both announced new measures to help parents protect children from unsuitable content on their smartphones and tablets.
In Instagram’s case, it is taking its inspiration from movie ratings to prevent younger teens seeing anything they generally wouldn’t see in a PG-13 flick. The setting will be turned on by default and a parent’s permission is required to turn it off.
“Today, we’re announcing that Instagram Teen Accounts will be guided by PG-13 movie ratings by default. This means that teens will see content on Instagram that’s similar to what they’d see in a PG-13 movie,” Instagram says in a blog post. “Teens under 18 will be automatically placed into an updated 13+ setting, and they won’t be able to opt out without a parent’s permission.”
For those parents who don’t want their teens watching PG-13 movies at all (which is a bit harsh if they’re over 13) there’s a new Limited Content setting that’s even stricter and will filter out more content. It’ll also remove kids’ ability to see, leave or receive comments.
Elsewhere in the digital content realm, Spotify is launching managed accounts for Spotify Premium Family plan subscribers in the UK, US and Canada. This setting, which has previously been trialled in other nations, is designed for kids under the age of 13. Parents can remove explicit content from the available library, while also hiding the more risqué short videos that play alongside the track. It’ll also block kids’ abilities to message other users on the service.
There’s also the added bonus for parents of keeping the younger listeners out of their personal algorithm and ruining their Wrapped results again.
In a blog post Spotify says: “At Spotify, we want to give parents and kids the ability to explore music together, from introducing children to the same songs you loved at their age, to helping guide their individual discovery. Every child is different, and every family’s journey is unique, so we’ve been evolving our tools to help caregivers share music in a way that feels right for them.”