Instagram introduces Teen Accounts, offering enhanced protection for young users with privacy features and safety tools, while providing parents with increased security controls to monitor and guide their teens’ online activity.
Instagram introduces Teen Accounts, offering enhanced protection for young users with privacy features and safety tools, online activity.
Takeaways:
We’re launching Instagram Teen Accounts to automatically provide built-in protections for teens and reassure parents about their safety on the platform. These accounts will limit who can contact teens and what content they can view, ensuring a positive and safe experience. Additionally, teens under 16 will need parental permission to loosen any of the built-in protections within their Teen Accounts.
Today, we’re launching Instagram Teen Accounts, a tailored experience for teens with parental guidance. These accounts come with built-in protections that restrict who can contact them and the content they can view, while also offering new opportunities for teens to explore their interests. Teens will automatically be placed into Teen Accounts, and those under 16 will require parental permission to adjust any settings to a less restrictive mode.
Reimagining Teen Experiences on Instagram
We recognize that parents want to feel assured that their teens can engage on social media safely, connecting with friends and exploring their interests without encountering unsafe or inappropriate content. Understanding these concerns, we are reimagining our platform for teens with the introduction of new Teen Accounts. This revamped experience is designed to better support parents, offering them peace of mind with enhanced safety measures in place. Additionally, teens will benefit from a new feature tailored specifically for them, allowing them to select topics they wish to see more of in Explore and their recommendations. This way, they can focus on enjoying the positive and fun content that resonates with them.
Built-In Protections to Address Parents’ Top Concerns
We created Teen Accounts with both parents and teens in mind. The new protections for Teen Accounts are specifically designed to tackle parents’ primary concerns, such as who their teens are communicating with online, the content they are exposed to, and how they spend their time. These protections are activated automatically, and parents have the authority to decide whether teens under 16 can modify these settings to be less restrictive.
Updated Features for Teen Accounts on Instagram
Instagram has implemented several key features aimed at enhancing the safety and privacy of teen users.
Private Accounts: By default, accounts for users under 16 will be private, requiring them to approve new followers. This means that those who don’t follow them cannot view their content or interact with them. This policy also applies to new users under 18 when they sign up.
Messaging Restrictions: Teens will be subject to strict messaging settings, allowing them to receive messages only from people they already follow or are connected to.
Sensitive Content Restrictions: Teens will automatically be placed under the most restrictive settings for sensitive content, limiting exposure to potentially harmful material, such as violent content or promotional posts about cosmetic procedures, particularly in sections like Explore and Reels.
Limited Interactions: Teens can only be tagged or mentioned by accounts they follow. Additionally, the most stringent version of the Hidden Words feature will be activated to filter out offensive language from comments and direct message requests.
Time Limit Reminders: Notifications will remind teens to log off after spending 60 minutes on the app each day.
Sleep Mode Enabled: A sleep mode feature will activate from 10 PM to 7 AM, muting notifications overnight and sending auto-replies to direct messages.
These updates, effective as of September 17, are designed to create a safer and more controlled environment for younger users on the platform.
How to Approve Changes to a Teen’s Settings on Instagram
Teens under 16 must obtain parental permission to use less protective settings on Instagram. To facilitate this, they need to set up parental supervision. For parents who wish to have more oversight over their older teens (ages 16 and up), enabling parental supervision allows them to approve any changes to these settings, regardless of their teen’s age.
Once supervision is established, parents can choose to approve or deny their teens’ requests to modify settings, or they can allow teens to manage their own settings independently. In the near future, parents will also have the option to directly adjust these settings to enhance protection.
Instagram’s approach to teen accounts highlights the importance of tailoring online experiences to the developmental stages of adolescents. Younger teens are more vulnerable and require additional safeguards, while the settings are designed to offer varying levels of protection based on age. Overall, these measures aim to create a safer online environment for all users.
Enhanced Involvement for Parents in Teen Accounts
To further empower parents who wish to engage in their teen’s online experiences, we’re enhancing our supervision features alongside the new protections for teen accounts. These updates include:
Insights into Messaging: While parents can’t access the content of their teen’s messages, they can now see who their teen has messaged in the past week.
Daily Time Limits: Parents can set daily usage limits for Instagram, determining how much time their teen can spend on the app. Once the limit is reached, access to Instagram will be restricted.
Scheduled Usage Blocks: Parents have the option to block their teen from using Instagram during specific time frames, such as at night, with a simple toggle.
Content Interests Overview: Parents can see the age-appropriate topics their teen is exploring, giving insight into the content that aligns with their interests.
Enhancing Teen Account Verification
To address the issue of teens misrepresenting their age, we are implementing additional age verification measures. If a teen attempts to create a new account with an adult birthday, they will be required to verify their age in more instances. We are also developing technology to proactively identify accounts belonging to teens, even if they list an adult birthday. This will enable us to ensure that these teens receive the same protections provided by Teen Account settings. Testing for this change will begin in the US early next year. For more details, you can read further here.
How We’re Enforcing Teen Accounts
To address the issue of teens misrepresenting their age, we are implementing stricter age verification measures. Teens will now need to verify their age in additional situations, such as when creating a new account with an adult birthdate. We are also developing technology to identify accounts that belong to teens, even if they display an adult age. This proactive approach will help us ensure that teens receive the same protections available under Teen Account settings. We plan to begin testing this change in the U.S. early next year. For more details, you can read here.
