Instagram Introduces Teen Accounts in India for a Safer Experience
Instagram expands Teen Accounts to India with stronger safety settings, parental controls, and content protections for a safer experience.
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Instagram Introduces Teen Accounts to India to ensure a safer online experience for young users and peace of mind for parents.
Teens are automatically placed in the highest safety settings, limiting sensitive content and preventing age misrepresentation.
Parents of teens under 16 can approve changes, monitor recent contacts, set screen time limits and restrict app use during certain hours.
To mark Safer Internet Day: Instagram is expanding Teen Accounts to India in phases, reinforcing our commitment to online safety for young users. These accounts create a more secure and age-appropriate space ensuring a safer social media experience.
With built-in protections Teen Accounts automatically limit unwanted interactions, enhance privacy settings and give parents greater control. This helps protect teens from cyberbullying, harmful content and privacy risks.
As digital interactions play a bigger role in shaping young minds, online safety is more important than ever. By default, teens are placed in the highest safety settings, giving them better tools to navigate social media securely. Parents can approve changes for teens under 16, monitor recent contacts, set screen time limits and restrict app use during certain hours.
With these protections Instagram aims to provide a safer, more supportive space for young users in India.
“At Meta, our priority is to create a safer and more responsible digital space. Expanding Instagram Teen Accounts to India strengthens protections, improves content controls and gives parents more oversight, ensuring a safer experience for teens.”
– Natasha Jog, Director, Public Policy India, Instagram
Stronger Safety for Teens
Teen Accounts come with built-in protections to address parents’ key concerns including who their teens interact with, content they see and how they manage screen time. Any modifications that remove restrictions for users under the age of sixteen require parental consent. These safety precautions are in place by default.
Key Safety Features for Teen Accounts
- Private Accounts: By default, teen accounts are set to private, meaning only approved followers can see their content. This applies to all users under 16 & new users under 18.
- Messaging Restrictions: Teens can only receive messages from people they follow or are already connected with.
- Sensitive Content Control: Most restrictive settings are applied to limit exposure to sensitive content such as physical fights or cosmetic procedure promotions.
- Limited Interactions: Teens are only able to be referenced or tagged by the individuals they follow. By default, offensive language in direct messages and comments is filtered out.
- Time Limit Reminders: Teens get alerts after 60 minutes of daily app use, encouraging breaks.
- Sleep Mode: From 10 PM to 7 AM, notifications are muted and automatic replies are sent to DMs.
Parental Supervision Tools for Teen Accounts
Teen Accounts offer parents tools to monitor and manage their teen’s experience including approving safety settings and setting daily screen time limits.
“Teen safety online is a growing concern for parents and Instagram’s new Teen Accounts feature is a step in the right direction. Strengthening privacy settings, limiting unwanted interactions and adding parental supervision tools can help create a safer space for young users. At Kidsstoppress, we’re committed to helping parents stay informed and have meaningful conversations with their teens about responsible social media use.”
– Mansi Zaveri, Founder & CEO of Kidsstoppress.com
Enhanced Parental Supervision
For teens under 16, any changes to loosen safety settings need parental approval. Parents can also enable supervision for teens 16 and older, allowing them to review and approve safety changes. Soon, they’ll be able to adjust settings directly for even stronger protection.
While Teen Accounts have built-in safeguards, parents can access additional supervision features, including:
- Monitoring Chats: Parents can see who their teen messaged in the past week (without reading messages).
- Time Limits: Once the daily limit is reached, Instagram becomes inaccessible.
- Restricted Hours: Parents can block Instagram at night or during set times with a simple toggle.
Ensuring Teen Accounts Show Age-Appropriate Content
To make sure teens get the right protections and can’t bypass age restrictions, Instagram is strengthening age verification. Since some young users may enter a false birthdate, extra verification steps will be required in certain cases—like when someone tries to sign up as an adult. This ensures teens are placed under the right safety settings.
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In addition to age verification, Instagram is improving content protections to keep teens’ experience age-appropriate. Content that breaks Community Guidelines will be removed, and sensitive content controls will be set to the strictest level by default. This limits exposure to potentially harmful content, including sexually suggestive material or discussions about self-harm. Even if such content is shared by someone they follow, it may be hidden automatically.
“Instagram’s new teen account updates add another layer of safety on Meta platforms. Finding the right balance between teen independence and online safety is challenging, but these changes are a step in the right direction. With strong implementation and oversight, they can make a real difference in keeping teens safer online.”
– Uma Subramanian, Co-Founder & Director, RATI Foundation