Tens of millions of teenagers with Instagram accounts may soon find their public profiles made private.
That’s because Instagram plans to default all new and existing accounts set up by people who have indicated they are younger than 18 to private mode. In that setting, an account holder must approve new followers before they can see, like, or comment on their posts.
The changes are part of a new effort by Instagram, called “Teen Accounts,” that packages new and existing safeguards for young people on the app. The company said the settings would help create more age-appropriate experiences for minors.
Instagram’s privacy and other changes may help address intensifying concerns by lawmakers and parent groups about the effects of social media apps on children. But they also risk irking some teenagers — and teen influencers — who are deeply invested in their public profiles.
Here’s what to know about the changes.
How will Instagram change for teenagers?
Besides making all new and existing accounts private by default, Instagram said it would now stop teenagers from receiving Instagram notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
The app will also limit sensitive content for minors, such as nudity or discussions about self-harm, and prevent direct messages from people they don’t follow — existing restrictions that the company had previously announced.
The app is also introducing a feature to enable teens to select content themes they’d like to see more of, such as arts or sports.
Instagram said account holders who are 16 or 17 will be able to make their accounts public and change other default settings by themselves. But teenagers younger than 16 will need a parent’s permission to alter the privacy default, sleep mode, and other restrictions.
When will teens see the changes to their accounts?
Instagram said it would begin imposing the changes to all newly created accounts, starting this week. Over the next two months, the company said it planned to roll out the privacy and other changes for existing teen accounts in the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia. Teenagers in other countries could see the changes starting in January.
Can’t teens simply lie about their age?
Some teenagers may try to circumvent the privacy changes by setting up new Instagram accounts with birth dates that make them seem like adults. The app said it would require those teenagers to verify their ages in various ways, such as by submitting a video selfie for age-estimation analysis.
How can families alter the settings?
For those younger than 16 wanting to change their account settings with parental permission, a family needs to set up the app’s parental supervision tool. The tool also enables adults to see how much time their teenage child is spending on Instagram, set daily time limits or block their teen from using Instagram during certain periods, like school hours.
New features on the supervision tool will enable parents to see a list of people their teenager has recently messaged as well as content topics their child has elected to see more of.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Highlights
Private accounts: With default private accounts, teens need to accept new followers and people who don’t follow them can’t see their content or interact with them.
Messaging restrictions: Teens will be placed in the strictest messaging settings, so they can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to.
Sensitive content restrictions: Teens will automatically be placed into the most restrictive setting of our sensitive content control, which limits the type of sensitive content (such as content that shows people fighting or promotes cosmetic procedures) teens see in places like
Explore and Reels.
Limited interactions: Teens can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow. We will also automatically turn on the most restrictive version of our anti-bullying feature, Hidden Words so that offensive words and phrases will be filtered out of teens’ comments and DM requests.
Time limit reminders: Teens will get notifications telling them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day.
Sleep mode enabled: Sleep mode will be turned on between 10 PM and 7 AM, which will mute notifications overnight and send auto-replies to DMs.
Get insights into who their teens are chatting with while parents can’t read their teen’s messages, now they will be able to see who their teen has messaged in the past seven days.
Set total daily time limits for teens’ Instagram usage: Parents can decide how much time their teen can spend on Instagram each day. Once a teen hits that limit, they’ll no longer be able to access the app.
Block teens from using Instagram for specific periods: Parents can choose to block their teens from using Instagram at night, or for specific periods, with one easy button.
Teens may be required to verify their age in more places, like if they attempt to use a new account with an adult birthday. We’re also building technology to proactively find accounts belonging to teens, even if the account lists an adult birthday. This technology will allow us to proactively find these teens and place them in the same protections offered by Teen Account settings. We’ll start testing this change in the US early next year. You can read more about those details here.
Helping ensure teens see age-appropriate content
We recognize parents are concerned that their teens might see mature or inappropriate content online, which is why we have stricter rules around the kinds of content teens see on our apps. We remove content that breaks our rules and avoid recommending potentially sensitive content – such as sexually suggestive content or content discussing suicide or self-harm. With Instagram Teen Accounts, teens will be placed into the strictest setting of our sensitive content control, so they’re even less likely to be recommended sensitive content, and in many cases, we hide this content altogether from teens, even if it’s shared by someone they follow.
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