This Week in Apps: Jack Dorsey-backed Bluesky, social app teen protections, Twitter customers get help

Welcome to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest news on mobile operating systems, mobile apps, and the overall app economy.

The app economy in 2023 has struggled, with consumer spending falling last year for the first time by 2% to $167 billion, according to data.ai's "State of Mobile" report . However, downloads continue to grow, up 11% year-over-year in 2022 to reach 255 billion. Consumers are also spending more time on mobile apps than ever before. On Android devices alone, the number of hours spent in 2022 increased by 9%, reaching 4.1 trillion.

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Amid a lack of regulation in the United States on how social media companies should protect their teenage and underage users, big tech companies are policing themselves, hoping to stave off any law to come that could have an impact on their activities. But the companies' so-called teen safety features and protections being rolled out do little to limit the negative impacts of teens' use of social media. At best, they present small obstacles or annoyances that any teenage user could easily circumvent. At worst, as with Snapchat's new Pause Streaks feature, they actually force users to pay for a less addictive app and better sanity.

Let's start with Instagram. The company this week touted its extensive testing of an age verification feature that asks users to verify their age if they try to change their age to adult (18 or older) in the app. The company offers one of three methods to confirm a user's age: they can upload a government ID, take a video selfie, or have others vouch for their age. Uploading the ID is obviously the most accurate method here, as video selfies can be hit or miss. Still, those first two options might seem a little more privacy-intrusive. Additionally, many under 18s may not yet have government IDs if they have not obtained their driver's license.

That's why Instagram offers the third option of "social guarantee".

Image credits: Instagram

But the way it is implemented places the control largely in the hands of the teenager. It is not necessary to ask a parent or guardian to verify the teen's age. Instead, the teen is allowed to manually select three users from their common subscribers who will certify that the teen is the age they claim to be. The adolescent's sponsors will receive an application to which they must respond within 3 days. This application presents several options to choose from, such as "under 13", "13-17", "18-20", "21 or over", or "I'm not sure".

Instagram claims that these users must also be at least 18 years old (assuming their age is real in the first place) and that they must adhere to "other safeguards", but nothing about this option is documented on the site.