Instagram has launched ‘teen accounts,’ a special feature to help protect under-18 users and enhance their safety on the platform.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, announced the launch in a statement via its blog on Tuesday.
It said all accounts belonging to users under 18 will be automatically converted to Instagram teen accounts, which will be set to private by default.
The teen accounts will only receive messages from people they follow or are already connected to.
The platform will also limit “sensitive content” including violence and videos promoting cosmetic procedures and filter out “offensive words and phrases” from comments and direct message requests.
The feature will allow teenagers to get notifications telling them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day.
A “sleep mode” will also automatically mute notifications between 10pm and 7am, and auto-reply to messages telling people to contact the user during the daytime.
Users under the age of 16 will need parental permission to modify the default settings but 16 and 17 will be allowed to disable the settings without needing approval from a parent.
Parents will also have access to a set of tools that let them monitor their children’s interactions and restrict app usage.
The feature is expected to start rolling out within 60 days in UK, US, Canada and Australia while other countries will start to get theirs by January.
Meta also announced it will bring teen accounts to other social media platforms under its parentage in 2025.
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