How old should you be to use Instagram?

Terms of service state you have to be 13, but there's no age-verification process, so it's very easy for kids under 13 to sign up. Common Sense would say 15+ because of the mature content, access to strangers, marketing ploys, and data collection.

Security settings on Instagram?

There are security settings on Instagram to help with who & what content can be seen/reshared and similar on your kids' profiles, we will share these below.

1. In privacy setting,s you can restrict who can comment, such as only to followers & can restrict certain words with filters.

2. Ability to reshare is another of these settings where you can choose who can reshare content posted by your kids, if content is reshared, it has the ability to go to the wider public from their friends' profiles if shared.

3. You can add permissions for videos & photos of others posting on your kids' profile, comments & tagging them.

Monitoring kids' activity on Instagram?

Best tip is to ask your kids to give you a walk through and explain who their friends are, what they are posting and if anything you think is iffy, ask them about it and why. Some tips below also may help in monitoring their activity.

1. Set up your Instagram and follow them, that way you can see what they are posting and who is commenting.

2. Check in on them at random intervals, going through their Instagram account just to see who/what content they have added.

Instagram is a very heavy image-based platform, this has the ability in kids' minds to influence how they should look, and criteria around other kids are posting photos and doing it so I should do it also. This can also influence validation in the mindset in a way of imagery, such as taking photos of oneself and publishing them for validation through likes, follows, and this can be seen as a type of measuring stick for kids. Discussions around this should be discussed early with your kids, and by implementing the monitors, this can help bring a safer space for your kids.