On Tuesday, Instagram unveiled its boldest initiative yet to safeguard young users on its platform by rolling out new “teen account” settings. These settings will automatically set millions of teen accounts to private and limit their exposure to certain content on the app.
This move, occurring almost three years after the revealing “Facebook Papers” highlighted the platform’s risks to young users, includes compelling teens towards parental supervision. The new settings will be applied to all users under 18, with 16- and 17-year-olds allowed to revert to their previous settings manually. However, those between 13 and 15 will need parental consent to make changes.
The “teen accounts” enhancements add to Meta’s existing suite of over 30 well-being and parental control tools, such as prompts to take breaks and content restrictions on topics like eating disorders. Despite these efforts, Meta has faced ongoing criticism for delegating too much safety responsibility to parents and teens. The reliance on teens to inform parents of their app usage has been particularly contentious.
Recent pressures intensified when a former Facebook employee, Arturo Bejar, disclosed in a Senate subcommittee hearing that Meta’s executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, had long ignored the detrimental impacts on teens. Legal actions have also accused Zuckerberg of blocking initiatives aimed at teen well-being, ignoring underaged account activities, and enabling environments where child predators thrive. Zuckerberg has since apologized to affected families.
The latest updates from Meta are intended to address major parental concerns regarding their teens’ online interactions, content exposure, and overall time spent on social media. The changes will automatically adjust accounts for those under 18 to the most private settings and restrict message interactions to known contacts. Additionally, teens will only see content from their Explore pages and Reels that meets strict sensitivity filters, like avoiding posts that promote cosmetic procedures.
Other adjustments include time management reminders after an hour of use and a “sleep mode” that mutes notifications overnight. The changes are set to start next week in select countries including the U.S., with a broader rollout planned in the coming months.
Instagram is also enhancing its parental supervision tools, allowing parents more visibility and control over their teen’s app activities, such as messaging history, daily usage limits, and nighttime app restrictions.
While these updates are part of a broader safety strategy developed with input from safety experts, youth advisors, and community feedback, challenges remain, such as verifying the actual identity of those monitoring the teen accounts. Meta acknowledges the difficulty in authenticating parental oversight and aims to improve age verification with artificial intelligence to better identify misreported ages by teens.
