Instagram launches "teen accounts" with restrictive features for safety

Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - Instagram has launched “teen accounts,” a special feature to help protect users under the age of 18 and enhance their safety on the platform.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, announced the rollout of the feature in a statement via its blog on Tuesday, September 17.

It said all accounts belonging to users under 18 will be automatically converted to Instagram teen accounts, which will be set to private by default.

The teen accounts will only receive messages from people they follow or are already connected to.

The platform will also limit “sensitive content” including violence and videos promoting cosmetic procedures and filter out “offensive words and phrases” from comments and direct message requests.

The feature will allow teenagers to get notifications telling them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day.

A “sleep mode” will also automatically mute notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., and auto-reply to messages telling people to contact the user during the daytime.

Users under the age of 16 will need parental permission to modify the default settings but 16 and 17-year-olds will be allowed to disable the settings without needing approval from a parent.

Parents will also have access to a set of tools that let them monitor their children’s interactions and restrict app usage.

The feature is expected to start rolling out within 60 days in the UK, US, Canada and Australia while other countries will start to get theirs by January.

Meta also announced that it will bring teen accounts to other social media platforms under its parentage in 2025.