In this week’s Hip Check, with associate producer Miranda Ellis, she guides you on how to set up parental controls for your children’s social media apps, introduces you to Keith Lee, and shares details on how to join the trending AI yearbook movement making waves on TikTok.

How to enable parental controls on your kids’ social media apps:

Instagram:

• Introduced an educational hub for parents with resources, tips, and expert articles on user safety.
• Rolled out a tool for guardians to see how much time their kids spend on Instagram and set time limits.
• Allows parents to receive updates on their teens’ followers, followed accounts, and account settings changes.
• Provides video tutorials on using the new supervision tools.
• Encourages users to take breaks from the app with suggestions for different activities.
• “Stricter approach” to content recommendations for teens.

Facebook:

• Offers a Safety Center with supervision tools and expert advice.
• Aims to allow parents to manage experiences across Meta technologies from one place.
• Allows guardians to see blocked accounts and access supervision tools.
• Lets parents approve or block app downloads based on ratings.
• Focuses on virtual reality supervision.
• Provides tools to discuss virtual reality with teens.

Snapchat:

• Introduced a parent guide and hub to give guardians insight into their teens’ app usage.
• Allows parents to see who their teens have been talking to (with permission).
• Previously had safety measures like requiring mutual friendships and private profiles.
• Features Snap Map location-sharing with default-off settings.
• Offers Friend Check Up tool to review friend lists.

TikTok:

• Introduced tools to filter out mature or potentially problematic videos.
• Offers Family Pairing hub for parents and teens to customize safety settings.
• Allows parents to set screen time limits, restrict content exposure, and more.
• Guardian’s Guide highlights how parents can protect their kids on the platform.
• Restricts access to some features for younger users.
• Curbs push notifications after certain hours.
• Focused on boosting awareness of parental control features.

Discord:

• Refreshed its Safety Center with guidance on safety settings, FAQs, and online safety discussions with teens.
• Allows users to prohibit minors from receiving friend requests or direct messages from strangers.
• Minors can connect with strangers in public servers or private chats through invites.
• Users ages 13-17 can receive friend invitations from anyone in the same server, potentially leading to private messages.