Instagram is making teen accounts private by default as it tries to make the platform safer for children amid a growing backlash against how social media affects young people's lives.
Beginning Tuesday in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia, anyone under 18 who signs up for Instagram will be placed into restrictive teen accounts and those with existing accounts will be migrated over the next 60 days. Teens in the European Union will see their accounts adjusted later this year.
Parent company Meta acknowledges that teenagers may lie about their age and says it will require them to verify their ages in more instances, like if they try to create a new account with an adult birthday. The Menlo Park, California company also said it is building technology that proactively finds teen accounts that pretend to be grownups and automatically places them into the restricted teen accounts.
The teen accounts will be private by default. Private messages are restricted so teens can only receive them from people they follow or are already connected to. or those promoting cosmetic procedures, will be limited, Meta said. Teens will also get notifications if they are on Instagram for more than 60 minutes and a 鈥渟leep mode鈥 will be enabled that turns off notifications and sends auto-replies to direct messages from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m.
While these settings will be turned on for all teens, 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to turn them off. Kids under 16 will need their parents' permission to do so.
鈥淭he three concerns we鈥檙e hearing from parents are that their teens are seeing content that they don鈥檛 want to see or that they鈥檙e getting contacted by people they don鈥檛 want to be contacted by or that they鈥檙e spending too much time on the app,鈥 said Naomi Gleit, head of product at Meta. 鈥淪o teen accounts is really focused on addressing those three concerns.鈥
The announcement comes as the company faces lawsuits from that accuse it of harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.
While Meta didn't give specifics on how the changes might affect its business, the company said the changes may mean that teens will use Instagram less in the short term. Emarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg said the revenue impact of the changes 鈥渨ill likely be minimal.鈥
鈥淓ven as Meta continues to prioritize teen safety, it鈥檚 unlikely that it鈥檚 going to make sweeping changes that would cause a major financial hit,鈥 she said, adding that the teen accounts are unlikely to significantly affect how engaged teens are with Instagram 鈥渘ot in the least because there are still plenty of ways to circumvent the rules, and could even make them more motivated to work around the age limits.鈥
New York Attorney General Letitia James said Meta鈥檚 announcement was 鈥渁n important first step, but much more needs to be done to ensure our kids are protected from the harms of social media.鈥 James' office is working with other New York officials on how to implement a new state law intended to curb children鈥檚 access to what critics call addictive social media feeds.
Others were more critical. Nicole Gill, the co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Accountable Tech, called Instagram's announcement the 鈥渓atest attempt to avoid actual independent oversight and regulation and instead continue to self-regulate, jeopardizing the health, safety, and privacy of young people.鈥
鈥淭oday鈥檚 PR exercise falls short of the safety by design and accountability that young people and their parents deserve and only meaningful policy action can guarantee,鈥 she said. "Meta鈥檚 business model is built on addicting its users and mining their data for profit; no amount of parental and teen controls Meta is proposing will change that.鈥
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the co-author of the that recently passed the Senate, questioned the timing of the announcement 鈥渙n the eve of a House markup鈥 of the bill.
鈥淛ust like clockwork, the Kids Online Safety Act moves forward and industry comes out with a new set of self-enforcing guidelines,鈥 she said.
In the past, Meta's efforts at addressing teen safety and mental health on its platforms have also been met with criticism that the changes don't go far enough. For instance, while kids will get a notification when they've spent 60 minutes on the app, they will be able to bypass it and continue scrolling.
That's unless the child's parents turn on 鈥減arental supervision鈥 mode, where parents can limit teens' time on Instagram to a specific amount of time, such as 15 minutes.
With the latest changes, Meta is giving parents more options to oversee their kids' accounts. Those under 16 will need a parent or guardian's permission to change their settings to less restrictive ones. They can do this by setting up 鈥減arental supervision鈥 on their accounts and connecting them to a parent or guardian.
Nick Clegg, Meta鈥檚 president of global affairs, said last week that the company has introduced in recent years.
Meta's Gleit said she thinks the teen accounts will incentivize parents to start using them.
鈥淧arents will be able to see, via the family center, who is messaging their teen and hopefully have a conversation with their teen,鈥 she said. 鈥淚f there is bullying or harassment happening, parents will have visibility into who their teen鈥檚 following, who鈥檚 following their teen, who their teen has messaged in the past seven days and hopefully have some of these conversations and help them navigate these really difficult situations online.鈥
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said last year that tech companies put too much responsibility on parents when it comes to keeping children safe on social media.
鈥淲e鈥檙e asking parents to manage a technology that鈥檚 rapidly evolving that fundamentally changes how their kids think about themselves, how they build friendships, how they experience the world 鈥 and technology, by the way, that prior generations never had to manage,鈥 in May 2023.
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Associated Press writer Anthony Izaguirre in New York contributed to this report.
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This story has been updated to correct the name of Nicole Gill.
