Instagram is set to launch a new initiative aimed at bolstering privacy and safety measures for its teenage users. The social media platform, owned by Meta, will begin automatically placing teens into "teen accounts" with built-in restrictions and enhanced parental controls.
Naomi Gleit, head of product at Meta, explained the rationale behind the move: "Everyone under 18, creators included, will be put into teen accounts," she told NBC News. "They can remain public if their parent is involved and gives them permission and is supervising the account. But these are pretty big changes that we need to get right."
The new accounts will limit messaging, tagging, and mentions to only those individuals the teen already follows. This represents Meta's most significant effort to date in managing how minors interact with the platform.
The initiative comes in the wake of recent controversies surrounding child safety on social media platforms. In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg issued an apology to parents during a Senate hearing on online child safety, where some testified that Instagram had contributed to their children's suicides or exploitation.
While Meta has previously introduced various opt-in restrictions for teen users, including parental supervision controls, their application has been inconsistent. Gleit acknowledged the feedback received from parents, citing simplicity, consistency, and increased control as key areas of focus for this launch.
The rollout of teen accounts will be gradual. New users under 18 will be automatically placed into these accounts upon sign-up, but existing teen users may not see immediate changes. According to Meta, many users worldwide won't be transitioned to teen accounts until next year.
Teen accounts will also feature the most restrictive content settings, limiting potentially sensitive material from unfollowed accounts. The Hidden Words feature will be activated by default, automatically filtering offensive words or phrases from comments and direct messages.
Users under 16 will require parental or guardian permission to modify their teen account settings, while those over 16 can adjust settings independently unless their accounts are linked to parental supervision.
Anticipating attempts to circumvent these measures, Meta plans to implement various age verification methods. These include requesting government IDs or video selfies when users attempt to create new accounts on the same device. The company is also developing AI technology to predict whether users claiming to be adults might actually be teens, based on behavioral signals such as account creation date, content interactions, and writing style.
Gleit declined to provide detailed information about this technology, citing concerns that teens might learn to bypass detection tools. The age prediction tools are scheduled for testing in the US early next year.
For parents utilizing supervision controls, new features will allow them to view their teens' messaging contacts – without reading the actual conversations – and see topics of interest selected by their teens for the Explore page.
Additional features include a "Sleep Mode" replacing the existing Quiet Mode and Night Nudges, which will silence notifications from 10 pm to 7 am. Teen accounts will also receive "Daily Limit" prompts encouraging app closure after 60 minutes of use.
To prevent misuse of parental controls, Meta will implement restrictions on teen account supervision and limit the number of teen accounts one person can oversee.
Gleit emphasized the company's approach: "We think parents know their teens best, and so I don't think that all of those controls are necessarily right for everyone, but we want to give parents the options to choose what's right for their child."
