A Parents Guide to Instagram in partnership with Reach Out
Josh Machin, Head of Public Policy for Australia
Originally Published: 22 June 2021
At Facebook and Instagram, nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of the people in our community. Empowering and protecting our online community — and young people in particular — is our most important responsibility.
As part of our commitment, Instagram is evolving policies and building tools to empower the community to use the latest technologies safely and equip them with the knowledge and skills to do so. We do this by working in partnership with local organisations and representatives from civil society to ensure we seek feedback and guidance to better understand the local community, and work collaboratively with partners to produce meaningful resources and programs. With the onset of the global pandemic, more families are coming to technology and online platforms to stay connected, and so we wanted to support parents in their understanding of how young people are engaging online and what they can do to support them.
This week, we’ve partnered with ReachOut Australia to introduce a new Parents Guide to Instagram as a comprehensive resource for parents. This is the updated version of the Parents Guide we launched with ReachOut in 2019, and it includes new tools and tips for parents to understand the safety features on Instagram and to have stronger conversations with their teens about social media use.
We’ve added more details on Instagram’s safety and security features, as well as tips from ReachOut to start conversations with teens related to mental health and the importance of managing their time online.
As part of creating this updated guide, Reach Out also commissioned new research to understand what parents are thinking about when supporting their teens online. The research by ReachOut found that 36% of parents feel unsure about the role they can play in keeping their teens safe on social media and 40% of parents said they need more support to understand social media in order to talk to their teens about it.
The Parents’ Guide to Instagram will respond to some of the concerns voiced by parents and be a powerful resource for Australian parents, carers, and teachers as they guide teens safely through their social media experience, and it’s available to be downloaded today for free on ReachOut’s website or at www.reachout.com/ParentsGuidetoInsta.
Thank you to Reach Out for their continued partnership and for working together to support Australian families to have a safe and positive experience online.
