Instagram has unveiled a new “teen account” setting designed to better protect young, impressionable users. Announced Tuesday, the update will automatically make teen accounts private and restrict the content they can access. The new settings will be applied to all users under 18, with 16- and 17-year-olds able to adjust their settings manually, while those aged 13 to 15 will still require parental approval.
These changes aim to reassure parents, highlighting the importance of parental oversight. The move comes after Meta faced immense pressure following whistleblower Arturo Bejar’s claims that top executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, ignored warnings about the dangers posed to teens on its platforms. Court documents from lawsuits against Meta suggest Zuckerberg repeatedly sidestepped initiatives focused on teen well-being and allowed child predators to exploit the platform by not shutting down accounts of users under 13.
At a Senate hearing in January, Zuckerberg apologized to families whose children were harmed by Instagram. Meta now says these latest changes aim to “address parents’ biggest concerns: who their teens are talking to online, the content they’re seeing, and how they’re spending their time.”
The update will automatically make all accounts for users under 18 private and restrict messaging to people the teen is already friends with. Tagging and mentioning teens in photos and comments will also be limited to users they follow. Sensitive content, including cosmetic procedure ads and explicit posts, will be restricted from teens’ Explore and Reels pages.
In addition, Instagram will introduce daily time limit reminders and enable “sleep mode” from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., silencing notifications and auto-replying to messages. Parents will gain new tools to monitor their child’s Instagram activity, including viewing who their teen has messaged, setting time limits, and controlling app usage during specific hours.
These changes will be rolled out to teen accounts in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia within 60 days, with additional countries to follow. However, Meta does not formally verify whether a parent is monitoring the account and relies on “signals” like birthdate to ensure proper supervision. The company has also faced criticism for not doing enough to prevent teens from lying about their age to bypass safety measures, but claims it is now using AI to better detect such cases.
