It's not uncommon for Instagram to come under fire for its harmful impact on society, not least for children and young adults. On Instagram's part, it says it wants to strike a balance between keeping younger users safe and ensuring that they can still enjoy using the app.
Instagram has an initiative that limits what ads its younger users see, but just how effective is this? Read on to find out.
Instagram Limits How Advertisers Can Reach Young People
Instagram only allows advertisers to target ads to users under the age of 18 (or older in other countries) based on their age, gender, and location.
This means that advertisers can't longer target younger users based on their interests, or their activity on other apps and websites—thereby limiting the targeting options they can use. This also applies to Facebook and Messenger.
Here are the reasons Instagram provided for this change in a blog post:
We already give people ways to tell us that they would rather not see ads based on their interests or on their activities on other websites and apps, such as through controls within our ad settings. But we've heard from youth advocates that young people may not be well equipped to make these decisions. We agree with them, which is why we’re taking a more precautionary approach in how advertisers can reach young people with ads.
When users turn 18, advertisers will be able to use more targeting options to reach them, but Instagram will give them a heads-up, along with the tools available to them to help them control their ad experience.
Advertisers Can Still Reach Younger Users on Instagram
While Instagram is trying to limit the ways in which advertisers can reach younger users, the measures have some obvious loopholes in them.
For instance, advertisers can target ads to users under the age of 18 based on their age, gender, and location. That means there's still a huge group of young users that is accessible to advertisers for targeting.
If anything, targeting young users in this way as opposed to targeting them based on their interests and activities on other apps means that even more young users are eligible for targeting as this is a broad, undefined group.
Instagram’s Rules Don’t Cover Influencer Posts
Because influencer posts are out of Instagram's control, younger users can still be reached in this way.
For instance, if a social media influencer posts sponsored content that isn't targeted to exclude younger users, anyone can view that post, including younger users. This is a loophole that advertisers can circumvent to reach those users on Instagram.
With influencer posts accounting for a huge and significant part of brands' advertising budgets, one can almost guarantee that young users can and will be reached via influencer posts.
Many young users follow older Instagram influencers because their lives, at least on Instagram, seem aspirational to them.
While there have been countless conversations around concerns over the impact that Instagram and influencer lifestyles have on young users' mental health, there is just no telling how harmful these perceived lifestyles can be and how deep the damage can go—especially when those lifestyles seem unreachable.
Is Instagram Doing Enough to Keep Younger Users Safe Online?
While Instagram has implemented changes to help keep young users safe on its platform, the truth is that these measures aren't enough.
Children are still at risk of being reached by advertisers and potentially harmful accounts on the app. People can create fake accounts to reach young users and potentially harm them in some way. Advertisers can also reach them through influencers.
For these reasons, Instagram needs to continue to invest in mental health initiatives to help young users to stay vigilant and safe on its platform. It can also consider more effective ways to verify accounts to prevent people from using fake accounts to reach and potentially harm kids.