Instagram is rolling out a new School Partnership Program that allows all middle and high schools to flag safety concerns like bullying directly to the platform for faster review — but is facing criticism from education advocates over whether the move actually benefits students’ well-being, or if it’s just the platform’s latest effort to deflect responsibility to regulate their products to be safe for kids.
To participate, schools must create their own Instagram profile and register for the program. Those accounts will get a special tag to indicate participation on their profiles. That account can then flag cyberbullying language from students, or anonymous gossip pages and administrators can report the content directly to Instagram.
The company says a report flagged through the program will be reviewed within 48 hours, a much faster timeline than what users typically see. It then would be evaluated against Instagram’s Community Standards to determine if the post or account should be taken down.
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Instagram says the program has already been piloted in about 60 schools over the past year, and is now available for schools to register nationwide.
The announcement comes as Instagram revealed it has now grown to 3 billion monthly users. That scale, parents argue, means the platform should shoulder more responsibility, rather than passing it on to schools and educators already stretched thin.
National research from the Cyberbullying Research Center shows that only 16% of kids who experience cyberbullying report it to their school, likely because they don’t think teachers can actually do much or they fear retaliation. Advocates say that’s why a faster reporting system could be helpful.
But teacher's unions aren’t convinced. Groups like the American Federation of Teachers, which represents 1.7 million educators, have lobbied Meta for years to take gossip accounts more seriously and to remove harmful content directly.
The National Education Association echoes the sentiment, having repeatedly joined with other organizations to push the federal government to address online harms through legislation. The union has also published a model school policy for limiting students’ use of personal devices in classrooms, and recently passed a resolution calling for stronger accountability from social media and AI companies on product design and media literacy education.
“We remain deeply concerned about Meta’s commitment to the well-being of children and adolescents, even if initiatives like the School Partnership Program can ultimately succeed in the crucial goal of addressing bullying and other problematic online behavior,: a spokesperson for the National Education Association wrote in a statement for Scripps News. “Effective solutions will only come when social media companies no longer prioritize profits over student well-being.”
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Critics note that the rollout of the program comes just months after Meta loosened its own community rules, ending its third-party fact-checking program and replacing it with “user-based community notes,” and dismantling its hateful conduct policy.
“Meta must take full responsibility for safeguarding children on its platforms, rather than outsourcing that duty to already overstretched schools and educators,” Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which focuses on stopping the spread of online hate and disinformation through research and policy advocacy, wrote in a statement to Scripps News. “Schools are places for education, not moderating the worst excesses of social media.”
When Scripps News’ reached out to request comment on the criticisms, a Meta spokesperson pointed to the success of its Teen Accounts, with hundreds of millions of teens registering under Instagram, Facebook and Messenger, after launching just a year ago. The news release for the School Partnership Program notes the company is “focused on providing young people with built-in protections,” recognizing that “there are many who play a role in keeping teens safe – including teachers and schools.” Meta also wrote they’ll have more updates to share soon as part of its commitment to supporting parents and protecting teens.
