TEENAGERS USING INSTAGRAM will see automatic privacy and time-use settings applied to their accounts, social media giant Meta has announced.

Teenagers using Instagram will be assigned a ‘Teen Account’ by default that comes built-in with some restrictions. Most of the settings are already available on Instagram but currently need to be selected by the user, rather than being automatic.

Most of the automatic restrictions are not about what the teenager can do with their account but about limiting how other accounts are able to interact with the teenager.

Parental permission will be required to change the Teen Account settings. Parents will also be given new controls that can be used to see who their child is messaging (though not what the messages say), see the topics they are viewing, and set limits on the time they spend on the app.

Teenagers who sign up to Instagram will be placed into Teen Accounts from today.

Teenagers already using Instagram will be notified about the changes and moved over to the new account type starting from next week. Meta said it intends to have teenagers in the US, UK Canada and Australia placed into Teen Accounts within 60 days and those in the European Union later this year, expanding more broadly to the rest of the world in January.

The company said that other Meta platforms, which includes the likes of Facebook and Facebook Messenger, will start to see Teen Accounts introduced next year too.

“These are big updates that will change the Instagram experience for millions of teens and we need to make sure they work correctly,” it said in its announcement.

The settings that are turned on automatically for Teen Accounts are:

• Private accounts: People who don’t follow the account can’t see its content or interact with it and must request to follow the account, which can be accepted or denied
• Messaging restrictions: Teen Accounts can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to
• Sensitive content restrictions: Limitations on the type of sensitive content (of which Meta gave examples that include content that shows people fighting or promotes cosmetic procedures) teenagers see in Instagram feeds like Explore and Reels
• Limited interactions: Teens can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow and offensive words and phrases will be filtered out of teens’ comments and direct message requests.
• Time limit reminders: Teens will be sent notifications telling them to leave the app if they have spent 60 minutes on it in a day
• Sleep mode: Sleep mode will be turned on between 10pm and 7am, which will mute notifications overnight and send auto-replies to any direct messages received