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Instagram has introduced new Teen Accounts for kids under the age of 16, aimed at protecting teenagers and giving parents more control.

In one of the biggest changes to the platform, Australian teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 will be automatically transitioned to the new Teen Accounts, which carry built-in protections.

It comes after the Australian Federal Government announced kids under the age of 14 could be banned from social media, under legislation set to be introduced this year.

Instagram teen accounts

Here are the most important things you need to know about new Instagram Teen Accounts:

  • Teen Accounts are private: By default the accounts of teens under the age of 16 will be private, the teen will need to accept new follows. People who don’t follow them can’t see or interact with their content. This applies to all teens under 16 who already have an account or are signing up, and teen sunder 18 when they sign up for Insta.
  • Teen Accounts have messaging restrictions: These accounts will have the strictest messaging settings, so they can only be messaged by people they follow or are connected to.
  • Sensitive content restrictions: Teen Accounts will automatically be placed on the most restrictive sensitive content control setting. This will limit the type of sensitive content teens see in Explore and Reels.
  • Limited interactions: Teens can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow. The most restrictive version of Instagram’s anti-bullying feature, Hidden Words, will also automatically be turned on. It means offensive words and phrases will be filtered out of their comments and DM requests.
  • Time limit reminders: Teens will get notifications telling them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day.
  • Sleep mode enabled: Sleep mode will be turned on between 10pm and 7am, which will mute notifications overnight and send auto-replies to DMs.

How can parents approve changes to a teen’s settings?

If your teen is under 16, they will need your permission to use less protective settings. It means they’ll have to set up parental supervision on the app. If you want more oversight over your older teen’s usage, just turn on parental supervision.

Once you have supervision established, you can approve or deny your teenager’s requests to change settings, or allow them to manage the settings themselves. And soon, parents will be able to change these settings directly.

Instagram teen accounts

There are also updates to the supervision feature

  • Get insights into who your teen is chatting with: You won’t be able to read your teen’s messages, but you will be able to see who they’ve has messaged in the past seven days.
  • Set total daily time limits for their Instagram usage: Parents can decide how much time their teen can spend on Instagram each day. Once a teen hits that limit, they’ll no longer be able to access the app.
  • Block teens from using Instagram for specific time periods: Parents can choose to block their teens from using Instagram at night, or specific time periods.
  • See topics your teen is looking at: Parents can view the age-appropriate topics their teen has chosen to see content from, based on their interests.

But teenagers will just get around the restrictions, won’t they?

According to Meta, because teens can obviously lie about their age, they’re requiring them to verify their age in more places. It also claims it’s building tech to proactively find accounts that belong to teens, even if the account lists an adult birthday.

When is this happening?

Meta says it plans to place teens into Teen Accounts within 60 days in Australia. Teens already using the app will be notified about the changes and they’ll begin to move them into Teen Accounts next week.

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  • People keep saying this won’t work, but I think it’s worth a go.

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  • I wonder how well it will work?

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  • This is such a great idea but I do wonder how it actually stops some people signing up with fake birthdates. I have a 14 year old son who is co clever with all this technology stuff. I do keep an eye on his accounts but that’s not to say he doesn’t have other private accounts tucked away somewhere.

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  • I’m glad I don’t have teenagers anymore and I worry about my grandkids when they get there. Social media is a cruel world.

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  • How do you stop a Pedo from applying for a under 16 account

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  • I think the changes are great. It will be interesting to see how well it works because teens are super good at finding their way around things, especially when it comes to technology but im all for it. If it goes well I’ll even consider letting my kids use it rather than the outright ban we have now.

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  • Until social media giants take responsibility for the harm they cause, I support Australia’s age ban.
    Algorithms which intensify polarisation harm young and malleable minds the most. If digital platforms won’t self-regulate – the government needs to step in,
    The reality is there have always been various age restrictions on platforms, and since I signed up for Facebook at age 11, they’ve been a breeze to get around. I have doubts this will change as laws will never be able to keep up with the agility of digital natives. I also have concerns that without adequate education of why a ban is being imposed, and without alternatives for teens to socialise online, this may drive children to deeper parts of the web that are decentralised, and growing.
    Australia’s dummy spit over kids on social media isn’t the answer. We need an internet for children
    that is more safe indeed.

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  • Love this! Our teens need much more protection than they are getting! I’m sure they will hate it but it is in their best interest!

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  • I think it’s a good idea. Instagram is such a big thing with teens (they aren’t into Facebook, that’s for us oldies apparently!)

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  • I think this is great and hope that Facebook will follow suit. They need to put things in place. There’s so much tech available these days and it’s too much too soon for the maturity level of our kids.

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  • It’s great to see the government is at least trying to put a lid on social media use. Sadly, people will find ways around any blockade, they always do

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  • The government’s decision to raise the age of social media access to 16 makes some sense considering the wealth of evidence that social media use is harmful to people, particularly adolescents. The major social media platforms have been engineered to be compelling, addictive and banal.
    There is plenty of evidence that excessive social media use has negative effects on mental health, body image, socialisation and sleep patterns. There are safe ways to use social media but at the same time, the large platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Facebook are not designed to be safe. While of course there will be issues with the efficacy of this move, and it may not be the job of the government to police media use, there is a clear justification for the ban from a pure health perspective and hopefully this will place pressure on social media companies to design their platforms to be a healthier experience for all of us.


    • Social media is indeed addictive for many people and this does indeed need to be tackled both at home, in schools and in the wider community. There needs to be greater education and implementation of the use of social media and having balance in life with screen time and physical activity time.

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  • I agree with more controls being in place for social media. Verifying the age of anyone using social media is so very important. Children do need to be protected when online content and activity impacts on children and families. Accounts being private is so important and I hope it works.

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  • I think it’s a good move. I just hope and pray that it works and that other social media sites will follow.
    Thinking about those who suffer under online bullying or even lost their lifes caused by this, like Amanda Todd (from Canada), Megan Meier (from America), Mia janin (from London) and I’m sure there will be more :(

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  • About time – let’s see what happens.

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  • Hope this works and continues into the future

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  • Such a great idea!

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  • These seem incredibly sensible changes.

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  • This sounds like a great first step to make changes and support our kids. Social media is too much for our young minds so it is great to see they have really put some thought into this and put some great restrictions in place for our kids. I hope this works.

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  • These sound great. Hopefully it helps protect our children so important in today’s world.

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