At the same time as Instagram chief Adam Mosseri testifies in front of US Congress, the social media app has announced changes including a “take a break” feature for teenagers.
The app says that this feature will help parents and their children manage their time on the app.
Research has shown that teens blame Instagram for increased anxiety and this feature which was hinted at by Adam Mosseri in November is now becoming real.
It will be launched on Tuesday in the UK, Ireland, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
“If someone has been scrolling for a certain amount of time, we’ll ask them to take a break from Instagram and suggest that they set reminders to take more breaks in the future,” Mosseri wrote.
The feature would also show them tips from experts to help them reflect and reset.
Teenage users will get notifications to turn on break reminders.
In March 2022, parents on Instagram will have a new tool to use Instagram which will let them see how much time children are spending on Instagram, and set time limits for the app. Another companion feature will allow teens to opt-in to a system that will notify parents if the teenager files a report against an Instagram user.
Time limits already exist on Instagram – users can voluntarily set a time limit per day and receive a notification when that limit is hit.
