Instagram rolling out changes for teen users

Instagram announced sweeping changes to teenagers’ accounts Tuesday, an effort aimed at boosting their safety and giving parents more control over content settings.

The social media platform will roll out “Instagram Teen Accounts,” which will be private by default for all users younger than 18, the company posted on the website. Users with these accounts will need to manually accept new followers and will only be able to be messaged, tagged or mentioned by people they follow, the release added.

Teens younger than 16 will need a parent’s permission to change any of these built-in protections. Users older than 16 can change them on their own unless “parental supervision” is set up on their Instagram, meaning parents still need to approve of any setting changes.

The changes come as Instagram and other social media platforms face mounting scrutiny from lawmakers and parents over social media’s impact on youth safety and mental health. Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, is currently facing dozens of lawsuits alleging the platforms were created to maximize young users’ time using features that may prompt mental health issues.

Acknowledging teens may lie about their age, Instagram said it will require users to verify their age in more places, such as if they try to create a new account with an adult birthday. The company is also building technology “to proactively find accounts belonging to teens, even if the account lists an adult birthday.” The technology is expected to be tested in the United States early next year, the platform wrote.

Those with Instagram Teen Accounts will also come with the platform’s strictest setting for sensitive content control, making them less likely to be recommended such content. This content includes discussions of self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, depictions of violence or sexually explicit or suggestive media. Content promoting the use of some regulated products like tobacco, pharmaceutical drugs or vapes also falls into this category.

The changes begin Tuesday for any users younger than 18 who sign up for Instagram in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. Those with existing accounts will be shifted over the next 60 days while those in the European Union will see the changes later this year, per the platform.

“The three concerns we’re hearing from parents are that their teens are seeing content that they don’t want to see or that they’re getting contacted by people they don’t want to be contacted by or that they’re spending too much on the app,” Naomi Gleit, head of product at Meta, told The Associated Press. “So teen accounts is really focused on addressing those three concerns.”