Facebook is working on the development of a new version of Instagram aimed at users under the age of 13, below the current minimum for the adult version of the app.

This has been revealed by internal documents of company executives to which he had access BuzzFeed News. In them, the Vice President of Product of Instagram, Vishal Shah, assured his employees on Thursday that “youth work has been identified as a priority” in the first half of 2021.

In this way, the Product group of the social network will focus on “developing a version of Instagram that allows people under 13 years of age to use Instagram for the first time,” as mentioned in the document.

As an additional aspect, the platform also plans to “accelerate work on integrity and privacy” so that its main version and the new version for minors “ensure the safest possible experience for adolescents.”

This week it was news that the platform recently began to develop technologies based on machine learning to prevent minors from lying about their age when creating their accounts, as well as so that adults cannot write direct messages to minors who do not follow.

It is a series of initiatives that seek to improve safety for minors in this digital environment. In addition, guides designed for mothers, fathers or dependent adults who seek to help them guide minors in the use of these tools and to become aware of their digital presence and the precautions that must be implemented were also released.

In turn, to prevent conversations between adults and young people who do not follow each other, the social network will begin to use safe prompts or notifications to encourage adolescents to be cautious in conversations with adults with whom they are already connected.

The objective of this version is that parents and parents have greater transparency and control over their children's activities on the social network

The objective of this version is that parents and parents have greater transparency and control over their children’s activities on the social network.

Direct Message Safety news will notify youth when an adult who has been engaging in potentially suspicious behavior is interacting with them in that way.

Apparently now the company plans to go one step further and create a version specifically for minors.

According to the internal Facebook document, those in charge of supervising the new project for the version that will be made for minors are the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, and the vice president of the social network, Pavni Diwanji, who participated in the development of YouTube Kids in its previous stage at Google.

Mosseri assured in statements to BuzzFeed News that the children’s version of the site is still in its early stages of development, that it does not have a “detailed plan” for its arrival, and that “parents are expected to have transparency and control” over their children.

The parent company has already launched previous products aimed especially for children, such as Messenger Kids, the mode for minors of its messaging app, available in some countries around the world.

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