Instagram announces account changes for teens promoting safety, parental control

For teens who love to scroll, screen time could soon look different.

On Tuesday, Instagram’s parent company, Meta, announced that users 18 and older will automatically be placed into a new type of private account.

“These teen accounts have built-in limits on who can contact them and the content that they can see and more ways to connect and explore their interests all guided by their parents,” said Safety Policy Manager M.C. Capelo.

Capelo said the move provided more control for parents and was a long time coming, influenced by conversations with safety experts and consultations with families.

It also follows lawsuits filed by dozens of states against Meta, accusing the company of harming young people.

“They're going to be able to see less sensitive content immediately. They're going to be able to have… or we're going to be protecting them a little more in terms of interactions, so who can tag them, who can mention them in content, and it's only people that they follow,” she said.

Meta says the new accounts will also include time notifications and encouraging breaks. They will also allow parents to set time limits or even block access at certain points of the day. The new accounts also include a sleep mode, silencing notifications overnight.

“I don't trust the technology. I know that it changes all the time, and there, you know, the restrictions that maybe someone else has are not the same restrictions as our family,” said Dallas's mom, Aimee Urista.

Urista is among parents who’ve resisted screen time for their children.

She moved her 5-year-old and 10-year-old out of public school to avoid devices and said she and her husband have already decided not to allow them to have social media accounts in the years to come.

Urista said Tuesday's announcement doesn’t go far enough to sway her decision.

“I think the best thing for parents and for us, for sure, is less technology. It's more face-to-face time. It's more being outside. I mean, there are so many issues from the technology that I don't trust,” she said.

Meta said the changes would start on Tuesday when new users under 18 are automatically enrolled into the private accounts. Existing users in the U.S. will be moved over in the next couple of months.

Meta said it intends to use artificial intelligence to catch users lying about their ages and ensure they’re enrolled in teen accounts. This is all to protect young people and give parents more control.

 “All of this, parents are going to be able to see, to adjust, and, you know, earlier teens, so younger teens from 13 to 16 are not going to be able to change these settings unless their parents approve. And that's key for this launch,” said Capelo.