Safe Instagram for Teens – A Detailed Parent’s Guide

One of a parent’s nightmares is to see their child falling into the nippers of social media platforms, especially Instagram.  When people are not aware of its hidden dangers, they can lose money, become victims of data theft, and even get blackmailed.

Let’s have a closer look at Instagram dangers no one talks about.

Safety Concerns for Your Teen on Instagram

Before we talk about ways to keep your kids safe on Instagram, let’s talk about the dangers that are eyeing for your teens:

• Every one in ten Instagram accounts is fake, created either to steal the data or inject a virus/malware into the targeted device.

• A recent Pew survey revealed that around 59% of teens had been bullied online. Every one in five teens has been bullied on Instagram.

• Recent research from Arkose Lab revealed that 27% of social media transactions happened between January 2020 and March 2020.

• Instagram has been a favorite place for hackers and scammers from the day it was launched. Scams of all sorts like job scams, romance scams, shopping scams, and the like often happen on Instagram.

The above-mentioned data is adequate to give a glimpse of what dangers Instagram possesses secretively. Now, let’s come to the point and talk about ways to deal with them.

Educate Your Children about the Dangers

We know it seems complicated, but every parent must educate their children about all these perils of Instagram, their sister app Threads, and social media in general.  Make them understand that they must not follow or accept the following request from a random or unknown account. Make them aware of all the unseen dangers. Awareness is the tool to deal with any kind of hassles.

Stay in Loop

To know what your child is doing on Instagram, you must first be on the platform and keep a close watch. We know you will already have an Instagram. If you and your child follow each other, then you’re doing great. If not, then do it today.

Make Most of Instagram Assistance

Instagram itself is aware of the dangers and offers tons of tools to stay safe as much as possible. Don’t worry; you’ll find some easy to use settings and filters in their sensitive content and family center. So, you and your teen child will have no worries about implementing these. Here are some of them.

Account (Private or Public)

Instagram allows you to control the account’s identity and footprint. Any Instagram account can be either private or public. No one can access private accounts. Pictures and posts will be locked. Only the followers will be able to see them.

On the other hand, public accounts are accessible to everyone and photos can be shared freely without regard for privacy.

Anyone can view the posts, share the pictures, and send text messages. Clearly, a private account is a safer way to have an Instagram presence. Encourage your teens to make their accounts private.

Manage Comments

Unwanted conversations can lead to many hassles. We have seen many teens getting bullied on their posts. Some have even got body-shamed openly in comments. Instagram offers “Comment Controls” features using unwanted commenting that can be prevented. With this feature, your teen can control who should comment on their posts.

Not only this, comments can be filtered out. Instagram has built some powerful filters that will automatically remove offensive words and phrases. You or your teen can create a list of their own bad words or emojis. This way, many sorts of offensive content can be kept out of your kids’ reach.

Story Sharing To Close Friends

Not every Instagram follower is worthy enough to watch your teen’s stories. Encourage your teens to limit the stories access by creating a list of close friends and share the story with them. They can add or delete members in this list at any time.

Manage Control

Instagram lets end-users decide who can text them, add them into a different group, or add them into a chat list. With this kind of control, tons of cyberattacks and hassles can be prevented.

Two-way Authentication

Prevent unauthorized access to your teen’s account by using the two-way authentication facility.

This is an added security feature, powered by a secure code. Only the linked mobile phone will receive that code. So, any other won’t be able to access your teen’s Instagram account.

Also, make sure you use a strong password to make Instagram account more secure.

Ending Notes

Instagram is a wonderful place to be, provided all of its risks and dangers are far away. Teens can easily carry away from the glitz and gleam of Instagram and overlook the hidden dangers of Instagram. But, a parent can’t afford to do that.  The challenge becomes greater for younger kids, in which case you’ll want to implement easy to understand social media safety tips.

If you’re also a parent wondering how to keep your teen kids safe on Instagram then talk to them about the safety concerns and encourage them to keep their account private and utterly secure. When used responsibly, Instagram is superb.

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