Instagram is introducing Teen Accounts, a new experience for teenagers designed with built-in protections and parental oversight, Meta revealed in a statement.
“We’re introducing Instagram Teen Accounts to automatically place teens in built-in protections and reassure parents that teens are having safe experiences,” said Instagram in a statement. “Teen Accounts will limit who can contact teens and the content they see, and help ensure their time is well spent.”
The company is automatically placing teenagers into Teen Accounts, and those under 16 will need parental permission to change any of the built-in settings to be less restrictive.
“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,” Instagram said. “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.”
Teen Accounts have built-in protections designed to address parents’ top concerns, including who their teens are talking to online, the content they’re seeing, and whether their time is being well spent. These protections are turned on automatically, and parents decide if teens under 16 can change any of these settings to be less strict:
- Private accounts: With default private accounts, teens need to accept new followers and people who don’t follow them can’t see their content or interact with them.
- Messaging restrictions: Teens will be placed in the strictest messaging settings, so they can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to.
- Sensitive content restrictions: Teens will automatically be placed into the most restrictive setting of Instagram’s sensitive content control, which limits the type of sensitive content (such as content that shows people fighting or promotes cosmetic procedures) teens see in places like Explore and Reels.
- Limited interactions: Teens can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow. Instagram will also automatically turn on the most restrictive version of its anti-bullying feature, Hidden Words, so that offensive words and phrases will be filtered out of teens’ comments and DM requests.
- Time limit reminders: Teens will get notifications telling them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day.
- Sleep mode enabled: Sleep mode will be turned on between 10 PM and 7 AM, which will mute notifications overnight and send auto-replies to DMs.
Teens under 16 will need their parent’s permission to use less protective settings. To get permission, teens will need to set up parental supervision on Instagram. If parents want more oversight over their older teen’s (16+) experiences, they simply have to turn on parental supervision. Then, they can approve any changes to these settings, irrespective of their teen’s age.
Once supervision is established, parents can approve and deny their teens’ requests to change settings or allow teens to manage their settings themselves. Soon, parents will also be able to change these settings directly to be more protective. Learn more about how to manage Teen Accounts.
“Instagram Teen Accounts reflect the importance of tailoring teens’ online experiences to their developmental stages, and implementing appropriate protections. Younger adolescents are more vulnerable as their skills are still emerging and require additional safeguards and protection. Overall, the settings are age-specific, with younger and older teens being offered different protections.” – Rachel Rodgers, PHd Associate Professor of Applied Psychology, Northeastern University
While Teen Accounts put new protections in place automatically, many parents want to be even more involved in their teen’s experiences, so Instagram is also adding to its supervision feature. Updates include ways to:
- Get insights into who their teens are chatting with: While parents can’t read their teen’s messages, now they will be able to see who their teen has messaged in the past seven days.
- Set total daily time limits for teens’ Instagram usage: Parents can decide how much time their teen can spend on Instagram each day. Once a teen hits that limit, they’ll no longer be able to access the app.
- Block teens from using Instagram for specific time periods: Parents can choose to block their teens from using Instagram at night, or specific time periods, with one easy button.
“The American Academy of Pediatrics Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health supports efforts to improve the online health and safety of young people, including changes that reflect the varying developmental needs of younger and older adolescents. It’s important that safety and privacy protections are the default settings, both to improve teens’ online experience and to reduce some of the burden that has fallen on parents. We look forward to hearing from teens about their experience of these new Teen Accounts and associated features and settings.” – Dr. Megan Moreno, co-medical director of the SAMHSA-funded AAP Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health.
Instagram will start placing teenagers who sign up for Instagram into Teen Accounts and will notify teens already using Instagram about these changes so they can begin moving them into Teen Accounts next week.
The company plans to place teens into Teen Accounts within 60 days in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, and to start placing them in Teen Accounts in the European Union later this year. Teens around the world will start to get Teen Accounts in January. Instagram will also bring Teen Accounts to other Meta platforms next year. These are big updates that will change the Instagram experience for millions of teens, and Instagram needs to make sure they work correctly.
“These updates to Instagram’s Teen Accounts offer a balanced approach, empowering parents with essential oversight while respecting teens’ right to participate and explore. In an ever-evolving online world, this update ensures that young people can engage meaningfully and safely, fostering positive connections while still providing the protection they need.” – Lucy Thomas OAM, CEO & Co-Founder, Project Rockit.
These changes are not yet available in all regions, but Instagram will share updates when they become available.
