Instagram will track the type of content being viewed, asking young users to “take a break” when surfing the social network for too long

Facebook’s vice president of global affairs said Instagram will introduce measures to “encourage” teen users to stay away from potentially harmful content, as well as suggesting younger users should “take a break.” apps for their own health.

After a bad time for Facebook and amid mounting criticism, the social network has announced that it will do more to protect some of its users. Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nick Clegg, explained some of the changes that could potentially help underage users.

“We’re going to introduce something that I think will make a significant difference, which is when our system sees that teenagers are watching the same content over and over again and that’s content may not be beneficial to their health, we will push them to see other content,” Clegg said.

Along with tracking the type of content being viewed, Clegg added, “We’re introducing something called ‘pause’, where we’ll remind teens to take a break from using Instagram.”

Clegg did not specify a schedule for when these features will be rolled out, but Facebook is said to be looking to protect its users. This includes asking for a user’s date of birth and potentially using algorithmic detection systems to determine if a user is lying about their age in various ways.

Facebook had previously planned to roll out a kid-oriented version of Instagram, but plans for the program have been shelved while Facebook is taking notice of the proposal.

Reference: AppleInsiders