What to know about Instagram’s new safety features for teenagers

Instagram users under the age of 18 will be given an automatic “teen account” with stricter privacy features, the social media platform announced on Tuesday, as social media companies are increasingly under the spotlight over security for minors. 

The Meta-owned company saidthe safety protection makes parental approval mandatory for some features. It will also make teen profiles automatically private, with less access to content deemed sensitive and features to limit screen time. 

For the first time, anyone 15 or younger will need a parent or guardian’s permission to opt out of the most restrictive settings. But 16 to 17-year-olds will not need parental approval to do so. 

“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,” Instagram said in a blog post. 

The move comes amid major pressure to protect young users on social media. In January, Meta boss Mack Zuckerberg apologised before US Congress to families of children who had been abused or sexually exploited on his platforms.

There are also concerns over social media’s impact on mental health and addictive technology. 

Meta said it plans to have teens get Teen Accounts within 60 days in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. It will come to the European Union “later this year,” Meta said.  

“Teens may lie about their age” so it will require age verification in more places, Meta said, adding that it was also “building technology to proactively find accounts belonging to teens”.

What are some of the key changes?

• Teens must accept new followers and those who don’t follow them can’t interact with them.

• Teens can only be messaged by people they follow.

• Sensitive content restrictions will limit content (such as fighting) teens see in places like Explore and Reels.

•  Offensive words and phrases will be filtered out of teens’ comments and DM requests.

• Notifications will tell them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day.

What are the features for parents?

• Parents will see who their teenager has messaged in the past seven days, but they won’t be able to read messages.

• Parents can set hard time limits for daily usage. Once a teenager hits that limit, they won’t be able to access the app.

• Parents can choose to block their teenagers from using Instagram at night, or specific time periods.