New and Upcoming Features
Keep an eye out for new features on Instagram that might impact young people’s online safety.
Instagram subscription
Instagram subscriptions have been around since early 2022 with limited availability. They allow Instagram creators to earn income similar to Patreon or OnlyFans with the platform’s safety features.
To be eligibile for Instagram Subscriptions, a user must be 18 and live in the United States. However, this feature is open to some in the UK on invitation. This could eventually develop to availability across the world.
June 2022:
+ Announced in the US, Instagram is testing new age-verification methods beyond a physical ID. The two new methods include through taking a selfie where the technology identifies the user’s age or through social vouching. Social vouching is where users give permission for three people they are connected with to confirm their age. Steps are taken to ensure the accounts are legitimate sources. ID verification remains in place. While these options are only available in the US at the moment, Instagram hopes to roll it out worldwide with insight from how it is used in the US. Learn more here.
+ Family Centre, announced in March 2022, will now be available in the UK and other countries outside of America.
+ Parental supervision tools are being rolled out for Quest headsets. These include controls to manage purchases, block inappropriate content, keep on top of screen time and more. See full details here.
+ Sensitive content controls, released last year, can now allow users to regulate how much sensitive content may come across their feed. The three options are ‘more’, ‘standard’ and ‘less’ with the ‘more’ option unavailable to those underage.