Instagram is launching Teen Accounts with built-in privacy and safety features

Meta has come up with a new way to protect teens under the age of 16 from potentially harmful content on Instagram.

The parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram has introduced so-called Teen Accounts. These accounts are specifically designed for teenagers under 16 and feature several privacy protecting features to protect teens and address parents’ concerns.

“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,” Meta says in a blog post, explaining all the new features.

All Teen Accounts are, by default, private accounts, which means users need to accept new followers, and people who don’t follow them can’t see their content.

In addition, Meta implements messaging restrictions. This means that teens can only see content and messages from people they follow and who follow them in return. This applies to all teens under 16, including those who’ve already signed up, and teens under 18 when they sign up for the app.

Furthermore, underage teens will be placed in the most sensitive content restrictions. This limits the type of content they can see in places like Explore and Reels. Also, the interactions of teenagers are limited, which means they can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow.

Lastly, Meta thought of a few ways to decrease the time teenagers spend on its platform. Teens will get a notification when they use the Instagram app for 60 minutes per day. There’s also a sleep mode enabled, which will be activated between 10 PM and 7 AM. Between these time slots, teens won’t receive notifications and can’t send auto-replies to Direct Messages (DMs).

Parents who think it’s okay to give their offspring more freedom and less protective settings, they need to set up parental supervision on Instagram. Then they can approve or deny their teens’ requests to change settings, or have them manage their settings themselves.

To prevent teens from creating adult accounts, they must verify their age, for example, via a video selfie. This is shared with software company Yoti, which uses artificial intelligence to estimate their age.

Yvonne Johnson, President of the National PTA, is happy with these changes. “This update demonstrates that Meta is taking steps to empower parents and deliver safer, more age-appropriate experiences on the platform,” she says.

Meta plans to implement Teen Accounts within 60 days in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The European Union will follow later this year. Teens around the world will start to get Teen Accounts in January 2025.

Meta says it’s bringing Teen Accounts to other Meta platforms as well, starting next year.