Meta has launched Teen Instagram Accounts in India on the occasion of Safer Internet Day to provide a safer digital environment for young users. The new features are designed to enhance privacy, reduce unnecessary contact, and increase parental control to protect teenagers on the platform. The new policy targets increasing issues with cyberbullying, privacy violations, and harmful content exposure.
Natasha Jog, the Director of Public Policy India at Instagram, said, “Meta has made the creation of both safer digital spaces and more responsible online behaviors its most important goal. Instagram Teen Accounts now available in India represents our commitment to fortify safety features and content management tools while giving parents control over their children’s use to protect teens from harm.”
Instagram Teen Accounts include several important new features. All teens now have private accounts as standard to prevent unknown users from viewing their content. All teen content remains protected so that viewers need to follow them or be their friend to interact with posts. The ability to send messages is restricted so that users receive inbox messages only from their followers or connections. Instagram will turn off default viewing of mature content like violence depictions and cosmetic surgery talk on Explore and Reels pages. To help teens manage their screen time the platform will send them regular alerts to take a break starting after one continuous hour of usage. The platform’s new “Sleep Mode” function turns off notifications from 10 PM until 7 AM. The anti-bullying feature, Hidden Words, will be activated by default, blocking obscene language in comments and DMs. Only followers can tag and mention teens on Instagram to reduce extra contacts. Enhanced Parental Supervision The new parental control features enable parents to see all their teen’s messages from the past seven days without accessing message content. The program enables parents to restrict Instagram usage at certain times of day such as night-time and sets time boundaries daily. After reaching the set time limit teens will no longer be able to access the application. Teens under 16 will have their safety restrictions adjusted only when their parents authorize it. Parents of Instagram users aged 16 and above also get to decide which safety settings to turn on and manage their children’s changes. Future parent capabilities will enable direct configuration of these settings to give youngsters greater protection and supervision. Instagram has improved its age verification procedures. A user who lies about their age will face extra authentication requirements as a barrier against changing settings meant to protect teens. These enhancements ensure that Instagram remains a secure space for teens, fostering a healthier and more responsible digital environment.
