Instagram announces Teen Accounts with built-in parental controls

In a move to provide parents more control over the accounts of teens, Instagram is introducing new features. The social media platform has announced that it is putting every teen into a protective account with parental controls. Now, all new and existing Instagram users under the age of 18 will have restricted DMs and more protective features. The new features will further safeguard the activity of teens on Instagram.

Instagram Teen Accounts will provide a safer experience for teens, controlled by parents

Starting Tuesday, Instagram is going to place all current and future accounts of teenagers into parent-controlled Teen Accounts. These will put teens in built-in protection and reassure parents that their teens are having a safe experience on the platform. Teen Accounts will limit who can contact teenagers and the content they see.

Furthermore, teens under the age of 16 will require a parent’s permission to change any of the protections on their account. The new change is designed to better support parents, so they can feel safe about the safety of their teens online. Notably, teens will also be given access to a new feature, which lets them select topics they want to get in Explore.

All Teen Accounts are now private on Instagram

In addition, all Teen Accounts are now private, so the users will need to accept new followers. Anyone who doesn’t follow them can’t see their content. In addition, the teens will be placed in the strictest messaging settings. They will be only messaged by users they follow and are connected to on Instagram.

Furthermore, teens now can only be tagged or mentioned by users they follow. Instagram will now also notify teens telling them to leave the app after an hour every day. Notably, Instagram will automatically turn on Sleep Mode between 10 pm and 7 am. The feature will mute all notifications during that period.

In addition, Instagram is adding a new supervision feature. It will allow parents to see who their teen has messaged in the past week. However, the parents can’t read the contents of the DMs. Parents can now also control the daily usage limits in the Instagram Teen Accounts.

The company plans to put teens into Teen Accounts within 60 days in regions like the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. In the European Union, the new changes will be rolled out by the end of this year. Teen Accounts will start rolling out globally from January 2025.