phaidra.ustp.at o:7817 DOI 10.60522/o:7817 Designing for The Next Generation — Building Responsible Social Media Platforms for Teenagers : 7th International Conference on Creative\Media/Technologies (IConCMT), 2025 This paper explores how social media platforms such as Instagram can be adapted to better support the needs of teenagers. The aim is to protect young users while helping them develop conscious, healthy habits online. Building on this goal, a set of features was designed to promote positive content, reduce harmful interaction patterns, and strengthen digital well-being. The work follows an iterative, user-centered design approach grounded in design thinking. The theoretical foundation discusses adolescent brain development, the psychological impact of social media, and manipulative design mechanisms such as dark patterns. A qualitative study involving interviews and a feature-sorting workshop examined how teenagers use the platform and what challenges they experience. The data was analyzed with qualitative content analysis according to Mayring using MAXQDA. These findings informed the development of an interactive prototype for an “Instagram Youth” version. The prototype included selected features derived from user stories and was evaluated through usability testing with eight teenagers and four parents, using Thinking Aloud sessions and Likert scale ratings to capture usability and relevance. The paper concludes with a practical set of design recommendations for creating safer and more ethically aligned social media environments. These guidelines aim to support designers and developers in building digital platforms that prioritize user well-being and offer constructive, development-focused experiences. This article has been double-blind peer reviewed. eng Youth-Centered Social Media Design Ethical Digital Design Conscious Media Use Instagram Youth Adolescent Media Behaviour Mensch-Maschine-Kommunikation Soziale Medien MCI <Kommunikation> Human computer interaction Mensch-Maschine-Dialog Mensch / Maschine / Kommunikation Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion Mensch-Computer-Kommunikation Mensch-Computer-Interaktion HCI <Kommunikation> Social Media Ethische Theorie Philosophische Ethik Moralphilosophie Sittenlehre Moral / Theorie Soziale Medien Jugend Jugendlicher Teenager Jugend <12-20 Jahre> Jugendalter Medienkompetenz Neue Medien / Schlüsselqualifikation Media Literacy Neue Medien / Handlungskompetenz Medienkonsum Mediennutzung Medien / Nutzung Medien / Konsum Medienhandeln Instagram 2026-06-16T08:41:24.664Z LOMv1.0 Author BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Opower;Helena; FN:Helena Opower END:VCARD https://w3id.org/kim/hcrt/scheme https://w3id.org/kim/hcrt/text Textdokument Text LOMv1.0 yes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 application/pdf 6543603 https://phaidra.ustp.at/o:7817 https://phaidra.ustp.at/api/object/o:7817/thumbnail LOMv1.0 discipline https://w3id.org/oerbase/vocabs/oefos2012 https://w3id.org/oerbase/vocabs/oefos2012/1 NATURAL SCIENCES NATURWISSENSCHAFTEN https://w3id.org/oerbase/vocabs/oefos2012/102 Computer Sciences Informatik https://w3id.org/oerbase/vocabs/oefos2012/1020 Computer Sciences Informatik https://w3id.org/oerbase/vocabs/oefos2012/102013 Human-computer interaction Human-Computer Interaction