Last year, we reimagined the Instagram experience for teens – and their parents – by introducing Instagram Teen Accounts. Teen Accounts have built-in protections that limit who can contact teens and the content they see. We automatically place teens into Teen Accounts, and teens under 16 need a parent’s permission to change any of these settings to be less strict. Since making these changes, 97% of teens aged 13-15 have stayed in these built-in restrictions, which we believe offer the most age-appropriate experience for younger teens.
These are major updates that have fundamentally changed the experience for teens on Instagram. We’re encouraged by the progress, but our work to support parents and teens doesn’t stop here, so we’re announcing additional protections and expanding Teen Accounts to Facebook and Messenger to give parents more peace of mind across Meta apps.
New Instagram Teen Accounts Built-in Protections
We know parents are worried about strangers contacting their teens – or teens receiving unwanted contact. In addition to the existing built-in protections offered by Teen Accounts, we’re adding new restrictions for Instagram Live and unwanted images in DMs. With these changes, teens under 16 will be prohibited from going Live unless their parents give them permission to do so. We’ll also require teens under 16 to get parental permission to turn off our feature that blurs images containing suspected nudity in DMs. We’ll make these updates available in the next couple of months.
Expanding Teen Accounts to Facebook and Messenger
We want to make it easier for parents to have peace of mind when it comes to their teens’ experiences across Meta’s apps, so today, we’ll begin making Teen Accounts available on Facebook and Messenger. Teen Accounts on Facebook and Messenger will offer similar, automatic protections to limit inappropriate content and unwanted contact, as well as ways to ensure teens’ time is well spent. We’ll begin rolling Facebook and Messenger Teen Accounts out to teens in the US, UK, Australia and Canada and will bring the experience to teens in other regions soon.
What Parents Are Saying About Teen Accounts
Since September, there are at least 54 million teens globally in Teen Accounts*, with many more to come as we continue to roll out around the world. These teens now have enhanced protections, like automatically being placed into private accounts and the strictest setting of our content controls. They also have notifications turned off overnight and reminders to leave the app after 60 minutes, and they can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to.
We developed Teen Accounts with parents in mind, and introduced protections that were responsive to their top concerns. We’re continuing to listen to parents, and that includes conducting research to understand how they feel about the changes. In a recent survey, conducted by Ipsos and commissioned by Meta, we asked US parents how Teen Accounts would help them and their teens, and we heard that:
- Overall, nearly all parents surveyed (94%) say Teen Accounts are helpful for parents, and 85% believe Teen Accounts make it easier for them to help their teens have positive experiences on Instagram.
- A strong majority of parents perceive the default protections provided by Teen Accounts as beneficial, with over 90% saying each of the features are helpful in supporting their teens on Instagram.
We’re excited about the progress we’ve made, and will continue to work to make our apps a safe place for teens.
