With someone who’s got two teens on Instagram, I was pleased to hear that they recently added Restrict, an anti-bullying feature that, as Instagram describes, “allows users to quietly protect their account while still keeping an eye on their bully.” It reminds me a little bit of the “Hide” features on Facebook, which you may be familiar with.
Related: 2 new Instagram safety features every parent should know about
Here’s how Restrict on Instagram works
Using the latest version of Instagram, you can restrict someone by swiping left on their comment, through the Privacy tab in Settings, or right on thee profile of the account. When you do this, only they will be able to see their comments (which is what “hide comment” does on Facebook), but you are still following each other.
Additionally, any direct messages will automatically be moved to Message Request, and you won’t get any notifications. If you want to see the messages from an account that you’ve Restricted you can, but they will not know that you’ve read your messages nor with they know when you are active on Instagram.
Related: How can I stop inappropriate follow requests on Instagram?
In Instagram’s own post about the new Restrict feature, they share that due to the complex nature of bullying, in circumstances where blocking or reporting might exacerbate the situation, being able to restrict a user might be a safe, helpful workaround.
