Instagram said on Tuesday it would review its approach to teen accounts and try to crack down on their access to objectionable content after a storm of bad publicity over how teens use the social media app.
Instagram, which is owned by Meta, announced a series of changes that it said were aimed at making teens’ experience on Instagram similar to watching PG-13 movies, with equivalent restrictions on sexualized content and other adult material.
One new restriction that Instagram said it would adopt is called age restriction: If an Instagram account regularly shares content that is not age-appropriate (for example, alcohol-related content or links to pornographic websites), then, the company said, it will block all teen accounts from viewing or chatting with that account.
The age restriction could even apply to celebrities or other widely followed adult accounts, Instagram said. But he didn’t say exactly where he would draw the line for accounts from adults who don’t want to be age-restricted. A company representative said sharing age-inappropriate content would not be enough for an account managed by an adult to lose access to the teen audience.
Other apps, such as YouTube, also use age restriction to restrict access to certain types of content.
A second new restriction on Instagram will block teen search results for a broader range of adult search terms, going beyond its current list of restricted terms, it says.
The changes apply only to teen-specific accounts, which are accounts that teens have created using their true birthdates or accounts that Instagram has determined through its own research are likely to belong to people under 18.
It is common for teenagers to lie about their ages online to avoid certain restrictions. A 2024 survey of UK teenagers by media regulator Ofcom found that 22% of 17-year-olds said they had lied on social media by saying they were 18 or older.
An Instagram representative said it tries to catch teens who lie about their ages, but declined to say how often they do so.
In announcing the latest changes, Instagram said it was borrowing the thinking behind the PG-13 movie rating, which suggests “parental guidance” due to “some material that parents would not like for their young children.” The film industry voluntarily launched the modern film rating system in the 1960s, when it was also facing the threat of government regulation.
“Just as you might see suggestive content or hear strong language in a PG-13 movie, teens may occasionally see something like this on Instagram, but we’ll continue to do everything we can to make those instances as rare as possible,” Instagram said in a statement.
The company said that for teen accounts, it would hide or discourage posts with strong language, certain risky stunts, sexually suggestive poses or marijuana paraphernalia. He also said that AI experiences for teens would be “guided by PG-13 ratings by default,” with limits on the types of answers given.
It said the same content restrictions would apply until account holders become adults, giving 17-year-olds the same experience as 13-year-olds.
Some parents have complained for years that Instagram, TikTok and other social media apps don’t do enough to protect the well-being of teenagers. Last year, during a Senate hearing, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to gallery parents who said Instagram contributed to the death or exploitation of their children.
Instagram does not verify self-reported ages upon registration in the United States, and Meta is a member of two trade associations, NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, that have sued to block state laws that would require age verification. In June, trade groups won injunctions against state-mandated age controls in Florida and Georgia.
Instagram allows children up to 13 years old to create accounts. Last year, it introduced teen-specific accounts, saying all minors would be redirected to such accounts automatically with limits on messaging and tagging.
Instagram says teens have created millions of teen-specific accounts, although it has declined to say how many of those accounts remain active after their creation.
Instagram is implementing the overhaul after a devastating year in the public spotlight. In August, Reuters reported that an internal meta-document allowed children to participate in “romantic or sensual” AI chats, including on an Instagram chatbot.
In September, two former Meta employees testified before Congress that the company blocked their research into teen safety in virtual reality and avoided taking certain safety measures if those measures meant fewer teens used the company’s apps, including Instagram and Facebook.
“Kids drive profits,” one of the former employees, Jason Sattizahn, said in an interview last month. “If Meta invests more in security to keep kids away from them, engagement goes down, monetization goes down, and advertising revenue goes down. They need them.”
At the time, Meta criticized Sattizahn’s testimony and the testimony of another former employee, Cayce Savage, saying their claims were “nonsense” and were “based on selectively leaked internal documents that were specifically selected to craft a false narrative.” He said he did not have a “blanket ban on conducting research with young people.”
A report last month from several child safety groups, including Fairplay, criticized Instagram’s teen account features for not offering substantial safety benefits. The report also urges that “recommendations made to a 13-year-old account should be reasonably rated PG.” Meta said the report was misleading and misrepresented the company’s efforts.
