Instagram Moves All Teens to More Restrictive Accounts
Instagram is moving all accounts for users under 18 to a new “ Teen Accounts ” format, which includes a number of protections and restrictions “assigned by parents.” The transfer begins today and is completely automatic, but while new accounts will be registered in the system immediately, it may take up to 60 days to replace all existing users in the US, and even longer worldwide.
The biggest change to teen accounts is that they will be private by default, meaning teens will have to manually accept new followers and those who don’t follow them won’t be able to see their posts. Strangers will also not be able to send them private messages, and they can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow.
Teen accounts will also have the most private control over the app’s content , limiting their exposure to violent content or content that promotes beauty treatments. Likewise, the app will filter “offensive words and phrases” from teens’ comments or private messages.
The app will also do its best to encourage healthier scrolling by sending teens notifications to remind them to take a break after every hour of use. It also activates a sleep mode from 10pm to 7am, which turns off notifications and automatically replies to private messages for your teen.
If that sounds like a lot, it’s because Teen Accounts are nothing new. While features like sleep mode are just getting started, other protections have been around for a while, and teen accounts are simply standardizing them under one banner.
In terms of the content teens actually see, they’ll be able to customize their recommendations to include more age-appropriate content, like “sports” or “animals and pets.” Parents will be able to see which of these topics their teen is viewing, as well as keep track of who their teen has messaged in the past week. If your teen spends too much time on an app, you can also set daily limits on their use or block them at certain hours.
Teens over 16 will be able to set up this protection themselves, although Meta did not explain to what extent. Persons under 16 years of age will require parental permission.
The transition to teen accounts will be automatic for all eligible users. In the event that a teen has lied about their age, Meta says it has a number of protections in place and is working on “new technology that actively finds accounts belonging to teens,” which the company hopes to begin testing in the US early next year. The new systems will join existing requirements , such as those that ask users to upload 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 post warning labels on social media platforms , a move that was supported by 40 states .