Instagram introduces stricter rules for teenage users as the Meta-owned app launches new policy for under-16s

With teenagers spending so much time on social media, it's only natural for parents to worry about who they might interact with online.

Today, concerned parents will be happy to learn that Instagram is tightening up its teen policy with new 'Teen Accounts'.

All under-16s joining Instagram in the UK, US, Canada and Australia will automatically be transferred to Teen Accounts, with existing accounts to follow in the next 60 days.

Parents and guardians will be able to see who their teenager is messaging and control when and how they can use the app.

The Meta-owned social media giant says that it will implement more age verification requirements to prevent teens from simply lying about their age.

Instagram says the new policy is designed to address parents' biggest concerns including who their children are talking to and how they spend their time.

By default, all Teen Accounts will be set to private, which means they will need to approve new followers.

People who haven't been approved to follow the account won't be able to see any posted content or interact with them.

Under-16s will also face a new series of strict controls to limit who they can interact with.

Teen Accounts will be set by default to the tightest messaging restrictions so they can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to.

In addition, teens on the app won't be able to be tagged or mentioned by people they don't follow.

This follows Meta's decision earlier this year to completely ban teenagers under the age of 18 from getting messages from strangers across Instagram and Facebook.

The introduction of Teen Accounts adds a number of features designed to restrict what kinds of content teenagers can access.

Instagram will turn on the most restrictive version of the 'Hidden Words' feature by default for all Teen Accounts.

This will automatically filter out 'offensive words and phrases' from teen's comments and DMs.

Under-16s' accounts will be automatically placed in the most restrictive settings of 'sensitive content control' which limits what can be seen in places like Explore and Reels.

For example, teenagers will no longer be able to see content showing people fighting or promoting cosmetic procedures.

Teen Accounts will be able to specifically select the topics they want to see on their Explore page and recommendations.  

This latest update will take these restrictions a step further by handing over many of the privacy controls to the parents.

Parents will be able to use the 'supervision feature' to adjust specific safety features.

By default, teen accounts will be set to the strictest safety settings and will only be able to lessen or adjust these restrictions with their parent's permission. 

Parents and guardians will be able to decide how much time and when their teen is able to use Instagram. 

Using the supervision feature, parents can set a daily time limit for how much time can be spent on the app or block teens from using Instagram during specific periods.

This update gives parents the option to activate 'Sleep Mode' which mutes notifications between 10 PM and 7 AM and sends auto-replies to DMs.

Parents and guardians will be able to see the topics their teen has chosen to view and who they have messaged in the past seven days - although parents will not be able to read their teen's messages.

To set up these new parental controls, the teen or parent will need to send an invitation for supervision.

To do this, click on 'More' in the bottom left corner of the app and select settings.

Under the option 'Supervision' click 'Create invitation' in the left menu and copy the invitation link to share with the parent or teenager.

While parents can supervise more than one teen account at a time, a teen can only have one supervisor.

Once accepted, the teenager won't be able to change any of their Teen Account settings without their supervisor's permission.

If a teen does try to change a setting, their parent will receive a notification asking them to approve or reject the change.

Dr Rachel Rodgers, associate professor of applied psychology at Northeastern University, says: 'Instagram Teen Accounts reflect the importance of tailoring teens' online experiences to their developmental stages, and implementing appropriate protections.

'Younger adolescents are more vulnerable as their skills are still emerging and require additional safeguards and protection.'

Naturally, teenagers will be tempted to lie about their age in order to bypass these controls but Instagram says it is taking measures to limit this.

The platform will require teenagers to verify their age when they first make an account or if they try to make a new account with an adult birthday.

In addition to uploading a picture of their ID, Instagram is testing the use of video selfies which will use AI to estimate the user's age.

Users may also be able to have a mutual follower to vouch for their age provided that the user is over 18.

Instagram says that it is 'building technology to proactively find accounts that belong to teens and automatically place them in protected, age-appropriate settings.'

This technology will supposedly be able to detect teenagers' accounts even if they list an adult birthday.

Testing of this technology will begin in the US early next year.

Teen Accounts will initially only be activated in the UK, US, Canada and Australia but will roll out to the EU later this year and worldwide in January.