Instagram making all teen accounts private as part of online child safety focus

Instagram announced Tuesday significant updates to enhance child safety on its platform, particularly targeting teen users, and Utah officials lauded the moves as a strong first step.

Here is what parents need to know about the new features and changes.

Key changes and features

Meta said all Instagram accounts for users under the age of 16 will automatically be set to private. According to The Associated Press , beginning Tuesday, anyone who creates a profile in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia will conform to the restrictions. Existing accounts will adjust to the change in the next 60 days. Teenagers in the European Union will see the applied restrictions to their profiles later this year.

As NPR reported , Instagram is introducing several new measures to enhance safety for teen users. To ensure more controlled and secure usage, teen accounts will now require parental approval to modify restricted settings. These updates will automatically set teen accounts to private, filter out offensive language and content, limit interactions and messaging, and include features such as automatic time limit reminders and a sleep mode. Here are the key changes:

• Parental approval: Teen accounts will now require parental approval to modify restricted settings.
• Parental supervision tool: Parents will be able to see which account their children are messaging, but won’t be able to view the actual message.
• Automatic privacy: Teen accounts will be set to private by default.
• Content filtering: Offensive language and content will be filtered out.
• Interaction limits: Restrictions will be placed on interactions and messaging.
• Time limit reminders: Automatic reminders will notify teens when they exceed a set screen time. Parents can turn on a parental supervision mode, where they can limit a child’s screen time to a specific amount on the platform.
• Sleep mode: Notifications will be turned off and autoreplies will be enabled from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
• AI system: Instagram will use artificial intelligence to proactively find teens that lie about their age.

Teens 16 and 17 years of age can adjust their privacy settings.

“‘The three concerns we’re hearing from parents are that their teens are seeing content that they don’t want to see or that they’re getting contacted by people they don’t want to be contacted by or that they’re spending too much on the app,’ said Naomi Gleit, head of product at Meta. ‘So teen accounts is really focused on addressing those three concerns,’” per The Associated Press .

Reactions from Utah officials

State Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, told KSL Newsradio he is optimistic about the changes, as Utah has been at the frontlines to push these restrictions on social media companies to protect the mental health of teens.

He acknowledged that it’s too early to fully assess the effectiveness, but he views these changes as a step in the right direction. McKell hopes that Instagram’s updates could serve as a catalyst, potentially prompting other social media platforms to implement similar measures to better protect young users.

“The damage has already been done.” Therefore, when it comes to protecting teens on social media, McKell said, “We are not going to back off.”

Gov. Spencer Cox issued a statement regarding Meta’s recent introduction of creating a safer environment for teen users.

“Utah has always been at the forefront of protecting our children in the digital age, and we appreciate Meta for taking a step in the right direction with the announcement of teen accounts. Many of these new features mirror our recently passed laws, demonstrating a growing awareness of the responsibility that social media companies have towards their younger users,” said Cox. “However, while these are positive steps, we believe they do not go far enough to ensure the safety and well-being of Utah kids online. We encourage Meta, and all social media platforms, to continue to innovate and implement even stronger protections for minors.”

Attorney General Sean D. Reyes also commented on Meta’s reformed teen initiative. “I applaud the safeguards and protections in Instagram’s new teen accounts. This marks substantial progress in changing Meta’s harmful practices that continue to hurt our youth. Yet, there is still much more that Meta and other social media companies can and must do to comply with the law,” Reyes said. “We will continue pushing forward in our investigations, litigation, and demands to secure enforceable safety standards and healthy online environments for Utah’s children.”

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney responded as well Tuesday, saying “Instagram’s new teen protection measures are a positive step, but more must be done to safeguard kids from the dangers of social media.”

Staggering statistics

Instagram, with over 2.4 billion users, has faced scrutiny for its “dopamine manipulation” tactics, which several states argue have contributed to an entire generation becoming addicted to the platform.

Yale Medicine research found that American teens ages 12-15 who use social media for more than three hours a day are twice as likely to face mental health issues like depression and anxiety. The risk is even higher for adolescent girls and those with existing mental health problems, such as cyberbullying, body image issues and disordered eating. Dr. Linda Mayes, chair of the Yale Child Study Center, warns that social media algorithms can worsen these issues by constantly showing teens content about mental health conditions, which may skew their perceptions. Additionally, exposure to harmful content, such as self-harm and eating disorder triggers, can normalize these behaviors and significantly endanger young users.

Forbes reported that in September 2021, Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, became a whistleblower, revealing that Facebook “chooses profits over safety.”

Haugen disclosed thousands of internal Facebook documents to U.S. lawmakers and warned, “teenagers are killing themselves because of Instagram.”