Instagram: What Parents Need to Know About the Supervisory Feature

To protect the little ones, Instagram has implemented a number of parental controls grouped under the “Controls”section. Here’s how to use them.

We all know very well that Instagram is not useful for everyone, especially for children and teenagers. Facebook’s own data released last fall, before Meta’s big debut, showed Instagram’s negative impact on teens’ mental health, though other, larger studies have not come up with such clear conclusions.

In any case, if you are a parent or guardian of a teenager, you may want to learn more about their use of the platform. What it does there, what it looks like, how much time it spends there, who it follows, etc. Meta recently introduced a number of parental control features, grouped under the term “Control”. This allows you to monitor your child’s account activity. For now, this option is only available in the US.

With Supervision, parents and teen caregivers can set app time limits and get updates on which accounts are being monitored (and who is following them). At this point, it is still necessary for the teenager to take the step of authorizing this oversight. In the future, Meta indicates that caregivers and other caregivers will also be able to set up supervision and set time slots for using Instagram.

Here’s how to use Supervision in its current version.

How to set up supervision on Instagram

For now, teens aged 13-17 must initiate supervision by sending an invitation to their parents or guardians, who obviously must have an Instagram account (or create one).

Ask your teen to open the Instagram app, go to their profile page, and click on the icon with three vertical lines in the top right corner. Click “Settings”> “Control”> “Next”. Then select “Set up control”and choose how you want to send the invitation link to a parent or guardian.

To accept the invitation, open Instagram and sign in to the account that will use the control. Then open the link, which will open the Instagram Family Center. Click Next, then Accept Invitation.

How to set up controls on Instagram

To change your child’s Instagram usage limit, go to Settings > Controls > Accounts You Follow and select your teen’s account. Click “Set Limit”, choose what you want and click “Save”. You can also see the time spent on Instagram over the past seven days.

You can also see a list of followed accounts and the accounts that follow it. With your teen account selected, tap Followers & Subscriptions, then More Info.