Jellycat Plushies: The New Trend Taking Over Labubu and Squishmallows
Dec 04, 2025By Aishwarya Rao
Instagram is always changing, and keeping up can feel like a full-time job, especially for parents. One of the newest features is the Instagram Map, which lets users share their location with friends and explore location-based content. If your teen uses Instagram or if you create content yourself, understanding this new feature is important.
What Is This New Instagram Map?
Think of Instagram's new map like a digital version of those "Find My Friends" apps, but built right into Instagram. Your teen can now share where they are with their Instagram friends, and they can see where their friends are too. The map shows up at the top of their direct messages.
But here's the important part: location sharing is completely off by default. Your teen has to actively choose to turn it on.
How Kids Will Actually Use This
Your teen might use this feature to:
- Let close friends know they're at the mall or a school event
- See if friends are nearby when they're out and about
- Check out cool content from local spots their friends have visited
- Share that they're at a concert or fun location
The map doesn't just show where people are; it also displays recent posts, stories, and reels that friends have shared from different locations. So even if your teen doesn't share their location, they can still explore content tied to places around town.
The Parent Controls You Actually Have
If you're using Instagram's supervision tools (the built-in parental controls), you get some real power here:
- You'll get a notification if your teen starts sharing their location
- You can completely turn off their ability to share location
- You can see exactly who they're sharing their location with
- You can have conversations about their choices before they make them
This gives you a chance to talk things through instead of just discovering what happened after the fact.
What Your Teen Sees and Controls
When your teen decides to share their location, they get to pick:
- Who sees it: all followers they follow back, close friends only, selected friends, or nobody
- When to hide it: they can stop sharing from specific places
- When to turn it off: location sharing can be switched off anytime
The location updates whenever they open Instagram or come back to the app. It's not constantly tracking like GPS; it's more like checking in when they're actually using the app.
Safety Conversations Worth Having
- Talk about the basics: Help your teen understand that sharing location means people know where they are in real time. That information can be powerful.
- Discuss their friend list: Who are they actually friends with on Instagram? Do they know all these people in real life? The location feature works best when it's truly just friends, not random followers.
- Set boundaries together: Maybe they share location with close friends, but not when they're home. Or maybe they only share when they're at public events, not daily activities.
- Practice the "what if" game: What if someone they don't know well asks to meet up based on their location? What if they feel uncomfortable about someone knowing where they are?
Red Flags to Watch For
Pay attention if your teen:
- Seems secretive about who they're sharing location with
- Mentions meeting up with people you haven't heard of before
- Shows anxiety about their location being visible
- Talks about people showing up at places unexpectedly
For Content Creator Teens
If your teen creates content on Instagram, this feature adds another layer to consider. Their location-tagged posts now show up on the map for their followers. This could mean more local engagement, but it also means more people knowing their regular spots.
Talk about mixing up locations, not always posting from home or school, and being thoughtful about what places they tag publicly.
Conclusion
This feature isn't inherently dangerous, but like most social media tools, it works best when everyone understands how it works. The key is having open conversations with your teen about their comfort level, your family's safety guidelines, and how they plan to use it.
Be the first one to comment on this story.