Instagram has begun implementing its Teen Accounts feature for users in India, aimed at enhancing the safety of younger individuals on the platform, which is owned by Meta. This new functionality will place restrictions on accounts belonging to users under the age of 18, and parental consent will be necessary for altering certain settings. Furthermore, Instagram will grant parents of users aged 16 and older the ability to activate supervision tools, with the platform also taking measures to filter out inappropriate language in messages and comments.
Phased Rollout of Teen Accounts on Instagram
In a recent blog post, Instagram highlighted that it will default teen accounts to private settings, especially for current users under 16 and new users under 18. This privacy setting restricts the visibility of their posts and comments to approved followers only.
Additionally, younger users will be permitted to message only those accounts they have approved. The platform will also impose limitations on tagging and mentioning users in Teen Accounts, automatically blocking harmful terms that could lead to harassment in comments and messages.
Moreover, Instagram will limit content accessibility for Teen Accounts by filtering out advertisements related to cosmetic procedures within the Explore feed and Reels, as well as content depicting physical altercations. If teenagers exceed 60 minutes of app usage in one day, they will receive a prompt to log off, while a Sleep Mode feature will be automatically activated nightly from 10 PM to 7 AM.
Enhanced Parental Controls and Age Verification
Parents will have the capability to oversee their teens’ activity on Instagram, facilitating access to a list of individuals with whom their children have communicated on the platform over the previous week. However, the contents of those messages will remain private. Parents also have the option to impose daily time limits, preventing access to Instagram after reaching a designated usage threshold or during designated sleep hours.
Instagram acknowledged that some younger users may not accurately report their ages during registration. To address this issue, the platform is enhancing its age verification processes, including the possibility of using identification documents or video selfies, thereby ensuring that all underage accounts are appropriately classified as Teen Accounts.
