Instagram will force millions of teens into protected accounts

Nearly three years after the explosive “Facebook Papers” first drew mass attention to the risks of Instagram for young users, the platform is taking its most dramatic step yet to create a safer experience for teens.

Instagram on Tuesday announced its most dramatic effort yet to protect young users from dangers on its platform, implementing new “teen account” settings that will automatically make millions of teen accounts private and restrict what kinds of content those users can view on the app. The change to how Instagram lets teens use its platform comes nearly three years after the explosive “Facebook Papers” first drew mass attention to the risks the platform poses for young users. The new restrictions are also designed to pushteens to adopt parental supervision through the app. Instagram will automatically apply the new “teen accounts” settings to all users under the age of 18. After the update, 16- and 17-year-old users will be able to manually change the app back to their preferred settings, but 13- to 15-year-old users will be required to obtain parental approval for any such changes. The new “teen accounts” settings build on more than 30 well-being and parental oversight tools parent company Meta had rolled out in recent years, such as “take a break” nudges and restrictions on “age inappropriate” content like posts about eating disorders. Despite those earlier updates, the company has continued to face criticism for placing too much responsibility for safety in the hands of parents and, in some cases, teens themselves. The parental supervision tools, for example, relied on teens letting parents know that they are on the app. Pressure on Meta to do more to protect teens ramped up again after a new Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower, Arturo Bejar, said in a November Senate subcommittee hearing that Meta’s top executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, ignored warnings for years about harms to teens on its platforms. Court documents from recent lawsuits against the company have also alleged that Zuckerberg repeatedly thwarted teen well-being initiatives, that Meta knowingly refused to shut down accounts belonging to children under the age of 13 and that the company has enabled child predators.