Parents learn about safety measures on Instagram

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Hoping to bridge the gap between the teenagers who spend much of their time on social media and their parents, Instagram conducted a workshop which focussed on safety measures of the popular social media platform. Instagram also launched a microsite, A Parent's Guide which is an additional resource to help parents create safer online spaces.

Around 15 parents attended the workshop at Nariman Point on Saturday where Tara Bedi, Instagram Public Policy and Community Outreach Manager shared various tips and tricks with the participants and demonstrated the use of existing safety tools on Instagram. Speaking about their aim to demystify Instagram for parents, Bedi said, "We wanted to help them identify some of the risks and circumvent them using the tools and features. We also wanted to get parents to talk to their children about it," she said.

Among the risks, Bedi pointed out that users need to have strong passwords in order to keep their accounts safe and avoid revealing their location. She also spoke about online bullying and ways parents can adopt to protect their children from it. "We can deal with the comments that attack you or your identity by using the comment moderation tool which can filter out the universally abusive words and the manual filter which can be customised," she said.

Sharing her experiences as a mother of two boys, 42 year old Ruchita Dar Shah who is also the founder of First Moms Club advised other parents on how they can understand and build healthy online habits for their children. "I have a 13 year old son and when he started his Instagram account he took my permission for it. We set down some rules like limiting the number of hours he can be on Instagram and not sharing private details," she said. Referring to the importance of treating teenage children as young adults, she added, "We shouldn't stalk our children but we have to be relevant in their lives. This information about the safety tools and filters is important and the need of the hour."

The Parent's Guide has been launched worldwide and it explains all the features of Instagram in a question-answer format just to get parents started. Parents can also mail their additional queries to the Instagram team.

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