Instagram forced to backtrack over child pressure

INSTAGRAM has rewritten guidance to parents after originally warning that children could be “social outcasts” if they did not use the social media app.

Sonia Livingstone, a government adviser, said the advice risked putting “unfair pressure on parents” when deciding whether to let their children use the picture platform on the internet.

Instagram has also changed its recommendation to parents that they should allow their children to have public profiles, after being contacted by The Daily Telegraph about the guide.

The Telegraph is campaigning for a Duty of Care for internet companies to protect children and parents from online harms. Instagram said the guide, co-written with a US charity, Connect Safely, no longer reflected the company’s views. It has since replaced its UK guide with a new version and changed the wording in a number of sections.

Ms Livingstone, a professor of social psychology at London School of Economics and a member of the UK council for child internet safety, said: “Peer pressure means young children use services they are not ready for and that may bring personal risks.

“Parents want stronger protections for their children from social media companies, and Instagram’s suggestion that a child may be a social outcast if the parent tries to set boundaries just adds to the unfair pressure on parents.” The “social outcast” advice was published in A Parents’ Guide To Instagram, under a Tips for Parents area on the social network. In a section titled “A few closing thoughts for parents”, the guide stated: “Even if a parent bans all social media, his or her child’s photo and other information can be posted by friends via their accounts.

“And there’s a risk of social outcast for young people who aren’t allowed to interact in this way, as it’s now so embedded in their social lives.” The guide also advised parents to allow their children to have an open (public) profile as opposed to a private one: “For many kids part of the fun of Instagram is developing a big following.”

In its new guide Instagram recommends teenagers have private profiles and the “social outcast” phrase has been changed – to teens could experience “fear of missing out” if they are not on social media. The guide was originally authored as a “collaboration” between Instagram and Connect Safely. The UK version also had a foreword written for it by a UK charity partnership, the UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC).

Larry Magid, of Connect Safely, said his organisation’s guide used the phrase “risk of social marginalisation” rather than “social outcast” and did not know how it had come to be changed in the UK.

A spokesman for UKSIC said: “As time has moved on the guide has become out of date and has now been updated to reflect more current advice.”

Instagram declined to comment on how the wording was changed.