Instagram’s newly launched Teen Accounts give parents greater control over their teen’s safety.
Meta has recently announced plans to roll out Teen Accounts across its platforms, a move to protect users aged 16 and younger.
However, teenagers in Africa, including South Africa, will only be able to access Instagram Teen in January 2025.
Meta plans to migrate teenage users to Teen Accounts within 60 days in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, with expansion to the EU by year-end.
The company said the rollout is part of efforts to address teen safety and online well-being, while providing parents peace of mind about their children's online activities.
Instagram Teen makes accounts of users under 16 private by default and includes built-in protections that limit who can contact users and the content they can access. It also features a sleep mode, activated from 10pm to 7am, which mutes notifications and sends auto-replies to DMs. Parents will be able to modify these settings.
In a statement, Meta said: “We know parents want to feel confident that their teens can use social media to connect with their friends and explore their interests, without having to worry about unsafe or inappropriate experiences. We understand parents’ concerns, and that’s why we’re reimagining our apps for teens with new Teen Accounts.”
Age verification measures
Meta has also strengthened age verification measures, requiring teens to confirm their age in more instances.
“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 link them (teens) to the same protections offered by Teen Account settings. We’ll start testing this change in the US early next year."
The social media giant says it also removes content that breaks its rules, and makes sure it avoids 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,” states Meta.
Share