Instagram Launches Teen Accounts With More Protections

Meta has just announced the launch of Instagram Teen Accounts to better protect teenagers on its social network used by over two billion users. The new Teen Accounts offer will better protect teenagers from unwanted contacts and potentially harmful content on Instagram, and they will also let them choose the topics they’re interested in to influence the app’s algorithm.

“We developed Teen Accounts with parents and teens in mind,” Meta said today. “The new Teen Account protections are designed to address parents’ biggest concerns, including who their teens are talking to online, the content they’re seeing and whether their time is being well spent.”

By default, Instagram Teen Accounts are set to private, and they can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow. These Teen Accounts can also only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to, and Instagram will automatically block offensive words and phrases to prevent any bullying.

To improve the well-being of teenagers, Teen Accounts will also urge teenagers to stop using the app after 60 minutes each day. Sleep mode will also be enabled between 10 PM and 7 AM to prevent any FOMO.

All these protections will be enabled by default on Teen Accounts, and teenagers under 16 will need their parents’ approval to change one of these settings. In practice, this will require setting up Parental Supervision on Instagram, which offers parents a set of tools and insights to control what teens under 18 can do on the app.

Starting today, teenagers in select locations who create an Instagram account will automatically get a Teen Account. Meta plans to roll out Teen Accounts to teenagers in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia within 60 days, with the EU to follow later this year. The global rollout won’t start until January, and Meta also plans to bring Teen Accounts to its other platforms next year.

To make sure that teenagers aren’t lying about their age to avoid getting a Teen Account, Instagram will also start requiring them to verify their age more frequently. Early next year, the Instagram team also plans to start testing a new technology in the US to enforce Teen Accounts on teenagers who list an adult’s birthday in the app.