Instagram introduce 'teen accounts' with boosted privacy and parental control

Instagram has introduced new 'teen accounts' with extended privacy and parental control settings in a bid to reassure parents and keep children safe.

The social media platform, owned by Meta, has added more "built-in protections" for young people. These include turning many privacy settings on by default for all under 18s, giving parents the ability to set daily time limits for using the app and blocking them from viewing it at night.

It comes as social media companies feel increasing pressure over online safety and content moderation, particularly in cases involving young people. The new settings will currently only apply to new accounts, but may be rolled out to exisiting teenagers' accounts in future.

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Users under 16 years of age will only be able to change the default settings with a parent's permission. But 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to turn off the settings without parental permission.

Other changes include the filtering of offensive words and phrases out of comments and direct message requests, and teenagers being sent notifications telling them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day.

UK children's charity the NSPCC said Instagram’s announcement was a "step in the right direction" but that account settings can “put the emphasis on children and parents needing to keep themselves safe."

Rani Govender, the NSPCC’s online child safety policy manager, said they "must be backed up by proactive measures that prevent harmful content and sexual abuse from proliferating Instagram in the first place”.

The new accounts are being introduced from Tuesday (September 17) in the UK, US, Canada and Australia.