With students returning to school, Instagram has shared an updated version of its Parents’ Guide, which provides a full overview of the app’s various privacy and control features, along with notes to help parents provide support and guidance for their kids in the app.

Which may well be critically important – as Instagram explains:

“Some adults make a distinction between teens’ social media lives and their “real lives.” But in reality, the two are closely intertwined. Instagram and other social media apps are where they express themselves, hang out with friends, explore ideas, grow and learn. Like all human interaction, there will be times of joy, kindness and compassion. There will also be moments of drama and anxiety — not necessarily because of the technology, but because that’s the nature of relationships, online and off.”

‘Not necessarily’ because of the technology, but often exacerbated by such.

Indeed, various reports have highlighted the dangers of Instagram, in particular, for teen users, and with new school pressures adding to this, it may be worth downloading and looking through the guide, which is available in 40 regional variations, including different languages.

The guide provides a full overview of Instagram’s various privacy and account safety options and how they work.

As well as details on how users can limit who they share their updates with in the app.

There’s also a section on DM safety, a key area of concern for youngsters.

And tips on how to guide more positive interactions:

Finally, Instagram also provides notes on how to talk about online safety with kids, which could help to open up lines of communication within your family.

There are some valuable and important notes here, and again, with kids now getting back into school life, and readjusting to new norms, now may be the best time to learn about the various tools and functions available to assist.

You can download a local version of Instagram’s Parents’ Guide here.