Meta today announced a partnership with Bollywood Actress Karisma Kapoor, to further spread the message of youth wellbeing on its platforms. The partnership is intended to encourage parents and kids to make use of the safety tools available for their wellbeing and have better control over their experience on Meta’s platforms. This is a part of Meta’s ongoing efforts to help young people have a positive online experience.
Sharing more about the initiative, Natasha Jog, head, public policy, Instagram and policy programs, Facebook India (Meta), said, “We want the time spent on our platforms to be meaningful and intentional, and that’s the premise behind this effort. The idea is to make people, especially young users feel safe on our platforms and help parents manage the experience with them. We’re thankful for the partnership with Karisma Kapoor, who is supporting to drive this message with us across India”
Actress Karisma Kapoor said, “Being a parent myself, I want my children to express themselves to their fullest. Social media use today is a shared experience for parents and kids. Parents play a pivotal role in helping create a safe environment through which children can explore the benefits of social media. As a mother, their wellbeing is my top priority. These needs need to be balanced with the need to have a safe online experience. I am happy to be associated with Instagram’s You Decide campaign to help parents effectively support their children in their social media interactions.”
Mansi Zaveri, founder, Kidsstoppress said, “Social media use today is a shared experience for parents and kids. Parents play a pivotal role in helping create a safe environment through which children can explore the benefits of social media. Meta’s initiative provides parents with the opportunity to have an expanded role in ensuring that safe experience and is a welcome offering.”
‘You Decide’ is a digital campaign that will be amplified by close to 10 popular creators such as Shivani Kapila, gamer Shakshi Shetty and Manish Kharage, among others to generate awareness among millennials and genZ about social media safety and tools available for the same.
To further user safety, Meta has announced a variety of initiatives and resources that are available to users.
Features that have been released recently as part of the Youth Wellbeing efforts include Quiet Mode, that helps the users focus and set boundaries with friends and followers on the app, giving teen users more control over the time spent on the app and what they see. Additional updates have also been released for Instagram’s Parental Supervision feature. Parents can view the accounts their child follows and the accounts that follow their children. Meta’s ‘Family Center’ will provide parents with all the resources and tools they need to ‘help support their teens’ online experience. It is also a place for parents and teenagers to find information on how to safely navigate the platforms. Teens will also see a notification when they’ve spent 20 minutes on Facebook, prompting them to take time away from the app and set daily time limits.
Youth safety has been a key focus area for Meta, having had numerous users who are teens, using its platforms. Keeping this in mind, Meta has strived to make all its platforms a safe space and has launched more than 30 tools aimed at the safety of youth in the last three years.