Instagram is overhauling the way it works for teenagers, promising more “built-in protections” for young people and added controls and reassurance for parents.

The new “teen accounts” are being introduced from Tuesday in the UK, US, Canada and Australia.

They will turn many privacy settings on by default for all under 18s, including making their content unviewable to people who don’t follow them, and making them actively approve all new followers.

But children aged 13 to 15 will only be able to adjust the settings by adding a parent or guardian to their account.

Social media companies are under pressure worldwide to make their platforms safer, with concerns that not enough is being done to shield young people from harmful content.

UK children’s charity the NSPCC said Instagram’s announcement was a “step in the right direction”.

But it added that account settings can “put the emphasis on children and parents needing to keep themselves safe.”

Rani Govender, the NSPCC’s online child safety policy manager, said they “must be backed up by proactive measures that prevent harmful content and sexual abuse from proliferating Instagram in the first place”.

Meta describes the changes as a “new experience for teens, guided by parents”.

It says they will “better support parents, and give them peace of mind that their teens are safe with the right protections in place.”

Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly viewed content about self-harm and suicide on Instagram before taking her life aged 14, told the BBC it was important to wait and see how the new policy was implemented.

“Whether it works or not we’ll only find out when the measures come into place,” he said.

“Meta is very good at drumming up PR and making these big announcements, but what they also have to be good at is being transparent and sharing how well their measures are working.”

(BBC News)

The prices of Milco milk powder have been reduced effective from today (Sep 10).

The price of a 400g milk powder packet has been reduced by Rs. 75, to Rs. 1,050.

Meanwhile, the price of a 1kg packet has been reduced by Rs. 190 to Rs. 2,585.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has relaxed the mandatory export conversion period in the latest exports proceeds conversion rule.

As per the new rules, the mandatory  export conversion period  has been extended to roughly a three-month period from an earlier one-month period.

The CBSL states : Taking into consideration  the macro-economic developments, in particular the developments in domestic foreign exchange market conditions, Central Bank of Sri Lanka issued the “Repatriation of Export Proceeds into Sri Lanka Rules No. 01 of 2024” (Rules), which was published in the Gazette Extraordinary No. 2391/02 dated 01.07.2024, in terms of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act, No. 16 of 2023, substantially relaxing the period applicable for exporters of goods to convert their export proceeds into Sri Lanka Rupees.

The complete press release is as follows :