Utah Governor Unhappy with Child Protection on Instagram Despite New Changes

Utah Governor Spencer Cox is continuing to fight against certain social media practices that target minors, including Instagram who recently rolled out a new set of changes. 

An article from ABC4 Utah listed the concerns coming from Cox as Instagram introduced its new Teen Accounts feature. 

Derick Fox from ABC4 Utah wrote, “Instagram announced new “Teen Accounts” which they said will feature built-in protections to curate a safe experience online. These built-in protections include the teen accounts being made private by default. Private messages will be restricted so teens can only message accounts they follow or are already connected to. Sensitive content, such as videos of people fighting or promoting cosmetic procedures, will be limited.” 

Instagram’s parent company, Meta, said teens could lie about their age, but also confirmed they’re working on ways to identify accounts belonging to minors. 

Cox thinks this is a solid first step toward safety for minors on social media, but he believes there’s much more that could be done. 

“Many of these new features mirror our recently passed laws, demonstrating a growing awareness of the responsibility that social media companies have towards their younger users,” said Cox. “However, while these are positive steps, we believe they do not go far enough to ensure the safety and well-being of Utah kids online. We encourage Meta, and all social media platforms, to continue to innovate and implement even stronger protections for minors.” 

A new social media law was set to go into effect starting Oct. 1, but was recently blocked by a federal judge as tech companies said it was a constitutional violation.  

Utah officials will continue to push the law through the court, but some say the tech companies will succeed in their claims. That said, Meta’s new teen policy changes are still going into effect regardless of the new law. 

Fox wrote, “Despite the setback in Utah’s law, Meta proactively made its policy changes for accounts belonging to minors. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said it was the changes marked substantial progress but echoed Cox in saying there was more social media platforms must do to comply with Utah’s social media law.”