Instagram announced that users under 18 would be placed in “Teen Accounts” on Sept. 17. This change is in response to the immense amount of criticism placed on Mark Zuckerberg for creating an unsafe environment for minors on Meta platforms, Facebook and Instagram.
In the past, Zuckerberg has thwarted multiple plans to help protect minors on social media. Many teen users of Instagram have been exposed to explicit content on their feeds and put at the risk of child predation. Zuckerberg went as far as to decline the hiring of new staff members focused on protecting children on Meta platforms.
The new Teen Accounts propose many ways to help protect and limit minors’ experience on Instagram. The plan rolled out many new settings and limitations. This begins simply with immediately placing all teens under 16 in private accounts where they must accept new followers and have limited messaging abilities.
Additionally, teens will be placed under the app’s most strict content settings to keep a clean feed, free of exploitation or explicit content. As for some more strict new settings attempting to limit screen time, Instagram will send a time limit reminder once a teen has used the app for 60 minutes in a day. Sleep Mode will mute notifications from the app from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
The main goal of these new Teen Accounts is to provide parents with more control over their childrens’ accounts. Users 16 and older can change these new settings at their will, but users 13-15 require parental permission to adjust any of these new settings. Additionally, parents have the option to review their teens’ messages and to block them from opening Instagram between specific times.
In order to enforce these new changes, Instagram adopted new age verification requirements. Many teenagers would simply sign up for a new adult account without the teen account restrictions. When signing up for an account or changing the age in your account, Instagram now requires users to submit a government issued ID or use a facial recognition process to confirm their correct age.
Instagram projects that in the next 60 days, it will move all current teen users to switch over to Teen Accounts and start protecting their experience on the app.
