Instagram launches new ‘Teen Accounts’ to keep young users safe

The new feature means that every user under the age of 18 will have a private account by default, giving them more control over who can follow them, like or comment on their posts.

Teen users will also be limited in who they can message, restricting this to people they already follow or have connected with. To reduce unwanted interactions, the platform has also implemented restrictions on direct messages from strangers.

To encourage healthier usage, Instagram has included ‘Sleep Mode’, which mutes notifications between 10pm and 7am, and added reminders for users to take regular breaks. These tools aim to help teenagers manage their time on the app more mindfully.

Parents will benefit from new supervision tools, allowing them to link their accounts to their teens. This enables them to monitor certain aspects of their child’s activity—such as who they’ve been messaging in the past week and the main topics they engage with on the platform. However, parents won’t be able to read specific messages or view exact posts, ensuring some level of privacy for teens while still giving parents insights to help keep their children safe online.

Teenagers will also have more control over the content they see. Instagram now allows them to choose age-appropriate topics of interest, such as sports or art, helping to curate a feed that aligns with their passions while reducing exposure to inappropriate material.

The update has been largely welcomed by campaigners and policymakers, who have long been advocating for stricter social media controls to protect young users. Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, stated that these changes address the concerns parents have over who can contact their teens, what they’re exposed to, and how much time they spend online.

This is a significant step for Instagram in improving safety for younger users. With Teen Accounts defaulting to private settings and offering parental supervision tools, the platform is hoping to ease parental concerns while fostering a more secure online space for teenagers.

For current users, these changes will be phased in over the next 60 days, while new accounts will automatically adopt these features. Instagram plans to extend these safety measures to other Meta platforms by 2025, marking a broader commitment to safeguarding young users across its digital ecosystem.