How to Use Instagram's New Teen Account Settings to Keep Young Users Safe

Instagram has introduced new teen account settings to boost safety for younger users and empower parents with better supervision tools. Responding to rising concerns about online safety, these settings limit teens’ exposure to potentially harmful content and give parents a way to monitor and manage their teens’ Instagram experience.

New Teen Account Limits: What Parents Need to Know

Under the latest update, Instagram automatically sets accounts for users under 18 to private, ensuring only approved followers can view posts and videos. New messaging restrictions allow teens to receive direct messages only from people they follow, reducing interactions with strangers.

Instagram also implements the highest content safety settings for teen accounts, filtering out sensitive topics and enabling an anti-bullying feature to screen offensive language. Teens receive reminders to take breaks after using the app for an hour, and a sleep mode activates from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., muting notifications to support healthy screen time habits.

New Parental Controls: Supervise with Instagram’s Family Center

Instagram’s Family Center gives parents several monitoring tools. Parents can see who their teen has messaged in the last seven days (though not the message content) and set daily time limits on app usage. They can also restrict app access during specific hours and oversee the types of content their teen is exposed to.

To activate parental supervision, teens must send an invite link to a parent through the app, which the parent must accept within 48 hours to begin monitoring.

Can Teens Bypass These New Safety Limits?

Teens over 16 have the option to disable some restrictions independently, while those under 16 need parental approval to make changes. To prevent age misrepresentation, Instagram is testing AI technology that verifies users’ ages based on profile data, making it harder for teens to claim they’re over 18.

Both parents and teens must agree to activate supervision, and either can opt out of supervision at any time. Parents not currently on Instagram will need an account to access the teen controls.

Who Has Access to Instagram’s Teen Safety Settings?

These new teen account settings are available to users under 18 in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia, with the European Union following soon. The settings will be available worldwide by January 2024, and Meta plans to roll out similar safety features to Facebook later in the year.

With these updates, Instagram aims to create a safer social media environment, offering parents and teens tools to help make online spaces more secure and manageable.