A new guide has been released to help parents keep their kids safe on Instagram

Emojis, stories, IGTV, "stalker accounts" – Instagram can be a minefield for parents, but a new guide aims to change that.

A Parent's Guide to Instagram, a collaboration between the social media platform and Netsafe, was just released.

Five teenagers speaking at the launch as part of Netsafe's Youth Action Squad made it clear what adults suspect is true: teens use Instagram differently.

Where most adults probably have a single profile, all of them switched between multiple accounts – public and private – every day.

Kelly Cha, a Year 11 student at Rangitoto College, referred to her public profile as her "stalker account". She knew people would be looking for her online, so that was her dummy account, she said.

Her two private accounts, one for her closest friends and one for her wider group, were where she shared personal posts.

Private Instagram accounts have become an alternative to groups chats on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, 17-year-old Sarisha Classen said.

The privacy settings were explained in the guide – how to switch between public and private, and how to block users so they couldn't see or comment on any posts.

Cyberbullying made this feature particularly important. A global study showed one in four Kiwi parents said their child had been a victim of cyberbullying, and 65 per cent of parents said social networking sites were the main place cyberbullying happened.

Dominic Taylor, 17, is the most-followed teen in New Zealand, with 272,000 followers on his superhero meme page.

He's had to block people who have left death threats in the comments. He had also compiled a comprehensive list of swear words in his manual filter for comments, a feature explained in the guide.

Classen said those were often the stories parents heard about Instagram, fuelling fear about the platform – but it wasn't like that for everyone.

The Youth Action Squad was near-unanimous in its call for parents to get on social media if they really wanted to understand it.

When parents did not understand social media, they were not always willing to talk about it because they were scared of getting it "wrong", 17-year-old Emma Kwan said.

Maddie Grant, 21, is an ambassador for bullying prevention organisation Sticks n' Stones. She said that lack of understanding leads to fear in parents.

"Fear leads to high emotions, high emotions leads to over-protection and helicopter parenting, which ultimately makes [young people] less likely to come forward if they do need help."

Young people were generally responsible online, she said, and were more likely to communicate if trusted. Research by Netsafe showed when young people did reach out for help, parents were still a place many turn to for support. The guide aimed to equip parents with the tools they need to help their children navigate life online.

"Although young people are often digitally savvy, they're still developing," Sean Lyons, Netsafe's director of education and engagement, said. "They need guidance on appropriate online behaviours and how to navigate challenges."

Netsafe also had tools to help schools create a safe online environment.

It was funded by the Ministry of Education to provide online safety assistance to schools, covering everything from urgent assistance on responding to online incidents, to resources to help with school policy.

The ministry also provided information to all schools around digital citizenship and cyber-safety through the enabling e-Learning website and the online digital technology guide, spokeswoman Zoe Griffiths said.