Instagram Teen Accounts
Meta is launching Instagram Teen Accounts, a new experience for teens that includes guidance for parents. These accounts have built-in protections that limit who can contact teens and what content they can view, while also offering new ways for them to explore their interests. Teens will be automatically switched to “Teen Accounts” which will be private by default, and those under 16 will need a parent’s permission to make any settings in their Instagram profile. Parents will also have access to settings to monitor their children’s interactions and manage their app usage.
Social Media Depression for Teenagers
Many recent Research has shown a connection between social media use and increased levels of depression, anxiety, and learning difficulties, especially among young users.
Meta, along with ByteDance’s TikTok and Google’s YouTube, face hundreds of lawsuits from children and school districts regarding the addictive nature of social media. Last year, 33 U.S. states, including California and New York, sued the company for misleading the public about the risks associated with its platforms.
Top social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok allow users aged 13 and older to create accounts. Meta’s new measures come three years after it stopped developing a version of Instagram for teens due to safety concerns raised by lawmakers and advocacy groups. In July, the U.S. Senate advanced two bills—The Kids Online Safety Act and The Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act—that would hold social media companies accountable for the impact of their platforms on children and teens.
As per Instagram:
“We know parents want to feel confident that their teens can use social media to connect with their friends and explore their interests, without having to worry about unsafe or inappropriate experiences. We understand parents’ concerns, and that’s why we’re reimagining our apps for teens with new Teen Accounts. This new experience is designed to better support parents, and give them peace of mind that their teens are safe with the right protections in place.”
In-built Protection Features to Address Parents’ Concerns
Meta created Teen Accounts with both parents and teens in mind. The new protections address parents’ main concerns about who their teens talk to online, what they see, and how much time they spend on the app. These features are automatically turned on, and parents can decide if teens under 16 can change the settings.
Here’s how the protections work:
- Private Accounts: Teen accounts are set to private by default. Teens must approve new followers, and people who don’t follow them can’t see their posts or interact with them. This applies to all teens under 16 when they sign up.
- Messaging Restrictions: Teens can only receive messages from people they follow or already know, keeping their conversations safer.
- Sensitive Content Restrictions: Teens have the strictest settings for sensitive content, limiting what they can see on Explore and Reels, such as fighting or cosmetic surgery ads.
- Limited Interactions: Teens can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow. An anti-bullying feature called Hidden Words is also on, filtering out harmful comments and messages.
- Time Limit Reminders: Teens will receive notifications reminding them to take a break after 60 minutes of use each day.
- Sleep Mode: Sleep mode automatically activates from 10 PM to 7 AM, silencing notifications and sending auto replies to messages during the night.
How To Approve Changes To a Teen’s Settings
Teens under 16 need their parent’s permission to use less strict settings. To get this permission, they must set up parental supervision on Instagram. Parents of older teens (16 and up) who want more control, can turn on parental supervision as well, allowing them to approve any changes to settings, no matter their teen’s age.
Once supervision is set up, parents can choose to approve or deny their teens’ requests to change settings, or they can let teens manage their own settings. Soon, parents will also be able to directly change these settings to make them more protective. You can learn more about managing Teen Accounts.
More Ways for Parents to Get Involved
While Teen Accounts have automatic protections, many parents want to be more involved in their teens’ online experiences. Here are some new updates to the supervision feature:
- Insights into Messaging: Parents can see who their teen has messaged in the past seven days, though they can’t read the actual messages.
- Daily Time Limits: Parents can set total daily limits for how long their teen can use Instagram. Once the limit is reached, the app will be unavailable until the next day.
- Time Blocking: Parents can block their teens from using Instagram during specific times, like at night, with just one button.
- Viewing Interests: Parents can see the age-appropriate topics their teen is exploring, based on their interests.
These features give parents more tools to support their teens while respecting their privacy.
Helping Ensure Teens See Age-Appropriate Content
We understand that parents are worried about their teens encountering mature or inappropriate content online. That’s why we have strict rules about what teens can see on our apps. We remove content that violates our guidelines and avoid suggesting potentially sensitive material, like sexually suggestive content or discussions about suicide and self-harm. With Instagram Teen Accounts, teens automatically have the strictest settings for sensitive content. This means they’re much less likely to be recommended such content, and in many cases, we hide it completely, even if it’s posted by someone they follow.
When to Expect These Changes
Starting today (Sep-17-2024), we’ll begin placing new teens who sign up for Instagram into Teen Accounts. We’ll also notify current teens about these changes so we can start moving them into Teen Accounts next week.
Meta Inc aims to complete this process within 60 days for teens in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. For those in the European Union, we’ll start rolling out Teen Accounts later this year. Teens worldwide will begin getting Teen Accounts in January. They’ll also expand Teen Accounts to other Meta platforms next year. These updates are significant and will enhance the Instagram experience for millions of teens, so we want to ensure everything works smoothly.