How will new 'age appropriate' code protect children online?
'I believe it will be transformational,' says information commissioner.
Instagram has introduced several new features designed to help users feel safe online as part of its latest update.
The social network was recently said to have the most detrimental effect on young people’s mental health in a report from the Royal Society for Public Health and the charity Young Health Movement.
Kindness Stickers
In an effort to clean up the platform, it has now launched "Kindness Stickers" and tighter comment controls.
Instagram says you can now "turn any photo or video into a visual expression of kindness by using the new heart-shape sticker collection".
You can add one of six stickers – each of which was created "by artists from the Instagram global community" – to your updates.
Giving Users Control On Comments
It is now also a lot easier to control which users can and cannot comment on your posts.
If you have a public account, you can block all people, individual users or groups of people – such as users you follow or users that follow you – from commenting on your updates.
If you have a private account, you can block individual users.
The company has expanded its offensive comments filter to Arabic, French, German, and Portuguese users too. You can access the reporting tool by tapping the three dots in the comments bar at the bottom of the screen.
Instagram said they wanted to “keep Instagram a positive and safe place for self-expression, as its builds a community where everyone feels safe to be themselves without criticism or harassment.”
Information about online hate and abuse can be found here.
