Conversations on WhatsApp should always feel fun and expressive and today, we’re rolling out filters and backgrounds to make your video calls even more engaging. With these new effects, you can now change your background or add a filter during a video call for a more personal touch.

Filters are designed to help you create a more playful atmosphere, whether that’s adding a splash of color or creating a more artistic feel for your video. With backgrounds, you can keep your surroundings private and transport yourself to a cozy coffee shop or comfortable living room for a more clean and polished look.

With 10 filters and 10 backgrounds to choose from, you can select and mix a wide range of options to create a unique look. Filter options include Warm, Cool, Black & White, Light leak, Dreamy, Prism light, Fisheye, Vintage TV, Frosted glass and Duo tone. Background options include Blur, Living room, Office, Cafe, Pebbles, Foodie, Smoosh, Beach, Sunset, Celebration and Forest.

We’re also adding Touch up and Low Light options that can help you feel more confident and comfortable by naturally enhancing the look and brightness of your environment, making your video calls more vibrant and enjoyable.

To access these during a 1:1 or group video call, select the effects icons on top right of the screen to see the selection of filters and backgrounds and choose the one that suits your mood.

These effects will be available to everyone in the coming weeks.

Takeaways

• We’re introducing Instagram Teen Accounts to automatically place teens in built-in protections and reassure parents that teens are having safe experiences. 
• Teen Accounts will limit who can contact teens and the content they see, and help ensure their time is well spent.
• Teens under 16 will need a parent’s permission to change any of the built-in protections to be less strict within Teen Accounts.

Today, we’re introducing Instagram Teen Accounts, a new experience for teens, guided by parents. Teen Accounts have built-in protections which limit who can contact them and the content they see, and also provide new ways for teens to explore their interests. We’ll automatically place teens into Teen Accounts, and teens under 16 will need a parent’s permission to change any of these settings to be less strict. 

[FPO: Follow link to see full video]

Reimagining teens’ experiences on Instagram

We know parents want to feel confident that their teens can use social media to connect with their friends and explore their interests, without having to worry about unsafe or inappropriate experiences. We understand parents’ concerns, and that’s why we’re reimagining our apps for teens with new Teen Accounts. This new experience is designed to better support parents, and give them peace of mind that their teens are safe with the right protections in place.

Built-in protections to address parents’ top concerns

We developed Teen Accounts with parents and teens in mind. The new Teen Account protections are designed to address parents’ biggest concerns, including who their teens are talking to online, the content they’re seeing and whether their time is being well spent. These protections are turned on automatically, and parents decide if teens under 16 can change any of these settings to be less strict:

• Private accounts: With default private accounts, teens need to accept new followers and people who don’t follow them can’t see their content or interact with them. 
• Messaging restrictions: Teens will be placed in the strictest messaging settings, so they can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to. 
• Sensitive content restrictions: Teens will automatically be placed into the most restrictive  setting of our sensitive content control, which limits the type of sensitive content (such as content that shows people fighting or promotes cosmetic procedures) teens see in places like Explore and Reels. 
• Limited interactions: Teens can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow. We’ll also automatically turn on the most restrictive version of our anti-bullying feature, Hidden Words, so that offensive words and phrases will be filtered out of teens’ comments and DM requests. 
• Time limit reminders: Teens will get notifications telling them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day. 
• Sleep mode enabled: Sleep mode will be turned on between 10 PM and 7 AM, which will mute notifications overnight and send auto-replies to DMs. 

How to approve changes to a teen’s settings

Teens under 16 will need their parent’s permission to use less protective settings. To get permission, teens will need to set up parental supervision on Instagram. If parents want more oversight over their older teen’s (16+) experiences, they simply have to turn on parental supervision. Then, they can approve any changes to these settings, irrespective of their teen’s age.

Once supervision is established, parents can approve and deny their teens’ requests to change settings or allow teens to manage their settings themselves. Soon, parents will also be able to change these settings directly to be more protective. Learn more about how to manage Teen Accounts. 

“Instagram Teen Accounts reflect the importance of tailoring teens’ online experiences to their developmental stages, and implementing appropriate protections. Younger adolescents are more vulnerable as their skills are still emerging and require additional safeguards and protection. Overall, the settings are age-specific, with younger and older teens being offered different protections.”  – Rachel Rodgers, PHd Associate Professor of Applied Psychology, Northeastern University

More ways for parents to get involved, if they want 

While Teen Accounts put new protections in place automatically, many parents want to be even more involved in their teen’s experiences, so we’re also adding to our supervision feature. Updates include ways to:

• Get insights into who their teens are chatting with: While parents can’t read their teen’s messages, now they will be able to see who their teen has messaged in the past seven days.
• Set total daily time limits for teens’ Instagram usage: Parents can decide how much time their teen can spend on Instagram each day. Once a teen hits that limit, they’ll no longer be able to access the app. 
• Block teens from using Instagram for specific time periods: Parents can choose to block their teens from using Instagram at night, or specific time periods, with one easy button.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health supports efforts to improve the online health and safety of young people, including changes that reflect the varying developmental needs of younger and older adolescents. It’s important that safety and privacy protections are the default settings, both to improve teens’ online experience and to reduce some of the burden that has fallen to parents. We look forward to hearing from teens about their experience of these new Teen Accounts and associated features and settings.” – Dr. Megan Moreno, co-medical director of the SAMHSA-funded AAP Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health

How we’re enforcing Teen Accounts

Teens may lie about their age and that’s why we’re requiring them to verify their age in more places, like if they attempt to use a new account with an adult birthday. We’re also building technology to proactively find accounts belonging to teens, even if the account lists an adult birthday. This technology will allow us to proactively find these teens and place them in the same protections offered by Teen Account settings. We’ll start testing this change in the US early next year. You can read more about those details here.  

Helping ensure teens see age-appropriate content 

We recognize parents are concerned that their teens might see mature or inappropriate content online, which is why we have stricter rules around the kinds of content teens see on our apps. We remove content that breaks our rules and avoid recommending potentially sensitive content – such as sexually suggestive content or content discussing suicide or self-harm. With Instagram Teen Accounts, teens will be placed into the strictest setting of our sensitive content control, so they’re even less likely to be recommended sensitive content, and in many cases we hide this content altogether from teens, even if it’s shared by someone they follow.

When to expect these changes

Today, we’ll start placing teens who sign up for Instagram into Teen Accounts, and we’ll notify teens already using Instagram about these changes so we can begin moving them into Teen Accounts next week. 

We plan to place teens into Teen Accounts within 60 days in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, and to start placing them in Teen Accounts in the European Union later this year. Teens around the world will start to get Teen Accounts in January. We’ll also bring Teen Accounts to other Meta platforms next year. These are big updates that will change the Instagram experience for millions of teens, and we need to make sure they work correctly. 

“These updates to Instagram’s Teen Accounts offer a balanced approach, empowering parents with essential oversight while respecting teens’ right to participate and explore. In an ever-evolving online world, this update ensures that young people can engage meaningfully and safely, fostering positive connections while still providing the protection they need.” – Lucy Thomas OAM, CEO & Co-Founder, Project Rockit

State-of-the-art, cloud-based, integrated digital payment suite is now on soil to serve banks, MNOs and fintechs in Nigeria and across West Africa

Lagos, Nigeria, 7 August 2024. FTSE-listed Network International, a trusted payment partner of Nigerian banks, has underscored its commitment to local and regional markets by bringing its innovative award-winning digital payment platform, Network One, on soil in Nigeria. The platform is now ready to onboard and empower banks, MNOs and fintechs in Nigeria and throughout the West African region. By deploying its flagship Network One platform on soil, Network International aligns with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive for in-country transaction routing, enhancing its local processing capabilities. The integrated platform provides banks, FIs, and fintechs with a comprehensive range of payment products and services locally in Nigeria for both issuers and acquirers. The suite is complemented by a variety of value-added services such as digital, loyalty, tokenization, enterprise fraud prevention, embedded finance and data and advisory solutions and many more. Network International is strategically investing in rolling out the platform in key markets to effectively serve its local and regional clients and partners across the MEA region.

Nandan Mer, Group CEO, Network International, said: “This major milestone took us only a few months to deploy thanks to a local team that worked tirelessly and seamlessly with cross-functional colleagues in various geographies to ensure we deliver on Network One’s promise of innovation, resilience, and agility. Taking Network One live in Nigeria is integral to our company’s continued commitment to the country and the continent.” As the fourth-largest GDP in Africa with strong consumer spending, Nigeria is ripe for a digital payments boom. Total transaction value in the domestic digital payments market is projected to reach US$21.32bn in 2024, with an annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2028) of 10.06% projected to reach a total amount of US$31.28bn by 2028 Domestic deployment good for local and African clients The Network One platform is an integrated payment suite offering both merchant and issuer solutions, hosted and supported in-country. It relies on a consolidation of best-in-class technologies brought together to provide end-to-end payment processing capabilities in a highly adaptable environment.

Network International is strategically positioning its proprietary technology infrastructure, which is developed, hosted, and maintained on a local level, to cater to the needs of local and regional entities seeking market-relevant digital payment solutions for their consumers. “Our presence on the ground and comprehension of the specific needs of the local market have enabled us to tailor a solution that is ideally suited for Nigerian enterprises. Our capability to establish a hub equipped with all the essential technology not only empowers our clients to enhance their value proposition but also positions Network to effectively contribute to financial inclusion and democratization of payments, addressing the needs of a large population of consumers across the continent,” explained Dr. Reda Helal Group, MD – Processing, Africa and Co-Head Group Processing, Network International

L-R: Dr. Reda Helal Group, Managing Director, Processing, Africa, Network International; Mrs. Chinwe Uzoho, Regional Managing Director, West and Central Africa, Network International; Mr. Nandan Mer, Group Chief Executive Officer, Network International and Mrs. Lola Agbebiyi, Managing Director, Nigeria, Network International during the media roundtable to announce the launch of Network One Payment Platform in Nigeria on Wednesday, August 7th 2024.

Swift growth of local talent yields significant outcomes A crucial aspect of Network International’s sustained investment in Nigeria is nurturing an empowered local workforce. By growing local personnel, Network is positioned to collaborate and co-innovate with local banks and mobile network operators, providing proximity to small and medium-sized enterprises and payment experts, right in the heart of their operations. As a show of its commitment to the transformation of the local entity, the company is firming up its staff complement, and will continue to enhance its resources and talents. Network recently marked its move from level 4 BBBEE status (in July 2023) to level 1 a year later as it continues to gain trust among African institutions as a payments partner of choice. “By recruiting the right talent, we are assured that our teams in Nigeria can achieve quicker results with reduced reliance on our international teams, leading to significant operational benefits for our clients locally and regionally,” Dr. Helal added.

Network International’s investments throughout Africa have led to substantial improvements in economies of scale. Consequently, the company can provide state-of-the-art technology at a lower cost than what companies might incur if developed internally. This affordability, coupled with the technology’s advanced features, appeals to a broad audience and furthers the company’s mission to expedite digital transformation across the continent. “Network One’s successful touchdown in Nigeria embodies our ambition to establish ourselves as a company that is authentically local in the African markets we serve,” Mer concluded.