On Tuesday, Instagram unveiled a new feature aimed at enhancing the safety of its younger demographic. The platform, owned by Meta, introduced Teen Accounts, which come with built-in protections. Users under 16 will have the most stringent privacy settings, and only those aged 16 and above will have the option to adjust their safety settings. Additionally, parents or guardians will gain the ability to monitor their teenagers’ messaging activities over a seven-day period and implement daily time restrictions or block app access for specific durations.
Instagram’s New Teen Account Features
Meta has designed the Teen Accounts to automatically default to private settings for users below 18, requiring them to approve each new follower request manually. This feature is aimed at fostering a safer environment for adolescent users.
Moreover, teenagers will only be able to receive direct messages from accounts they already follow or are connected with. The platform has also limited the tagging and mentioning of teens to accounts they follow, while a new filter feature will help screen out unwanted comments from both direct messages and comments sections.
In addition to these privacy enhancements, sensitive content restrictions will automatically be enabled at the highest level for teens, preventing exposure to violent content or cosmetic procedure promotions on the Explore and Reels sections.
Instagram is also introducing a sleep mode feature that will be automatically activated between 10 PM and 7 AM, silencing notifications and messages during this timeframe. Along with this, teens will receive reminders if they spend over an hour on the app in a single session.
Enhanced Parental Controls for Teen Accounts
For added peace of mind, parents can choose to gain valuable insights into their teens’ activities on Instagram through a new supervision feature. This function will provide parents with details on who their teenagers have messaged in the past week, including interactions related to stories and notes, but without revealing specific message content.
Parents will also have access to an overview of the topics their teenagers are interested in on the platform. They can set usage timers to limit app access after a certain duration or block Instagram usage during specific times.
Timeline for Rollout of Teen Accounts
According to Meta, teenagers in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia who register for Instagram will be automatically placed into Teen Accounts. Existing users under 16 will transition to the new account setup next week. Additionally, users in the European Union will be migrated to these Teen Accounts later in the year, with plans for global expansion in January 2025.
