Instagram is moving all accounts for users under 18 to a new “Teen Accounts” format, which comes with a number of protections and restrictions “guided by parents.” The move starts today and is fully automatic, but while new accounts will be registered into the system immediately, it may take up to 60 days to get all existing users in the U.S. swapped over, and longer globally.
The biggest change to Teen Accounts is that they will be private by default, meaning teens will have to manually accept new followers, and that those who don’t follow them won’t be able to see their posts. Strangers also won’t be able to DM them, and they can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow.
Teen Accounts will also get the app’s most sensitive content control, limiting their exposure to violent content or content that promotes cosmetic procedures. Similarly, the app will filter “offensive words and phrases” out of teens’ comments or DMs.
The app will also do its best to encourage more healthy scrolling, sending teens notifications reminding them to take a break after each hour of use. It’ll also activate a Sleep Mode between 10 PM and 7 AM that mutes notifications and auto-replies to DMs for your teen.
If that sounds like a lot, it’s because Teen Accounts isn’t entirely new. While features like Sleep Mode are just now getting their start, other protections have been around for a while, with Teen Accounts simply standardizing them under one banner.
As for the content teens actually see, they’ll be able to customize their recommendations to include more age appropriate content, like “sports” or “animal & pets.” Parents will be able to see which of these topics their teen is viewing, as well as monitor who their teen has messaged for the past week. If your teen is spending too much time on the app, you can also set daily time limits on its use or block it during specific hours.
Teens over the age of 16 will be able to tweak these protections on their own, although Meta hasn’t made it clear to what extent. Those under 16 will require a parent’s permission.
The swap to Teen Accounts will be automatic for all eligible users. In the case that a teen has lied about their age, Meta says it has a number of safeguards in place, and that it’s working on “new technology that proactively finds accounts belonging to teens,” which the company is hoping to start testing in the U.S. early next year. The new systems would join existing requirements, such as those that ask users to upload an ID/video selfie/proof from friends before they can change their birthday to say they are over 18.
These changes come in the wake of the Surgeon General’s proposal to put warning labels on social media platforms—a move that has been backed by 40 states.
