Instagram introduces teen accounts with restricted features

Instagram will make teenagers' accounts private by default in an effort to make the platform a safer place for young people.

Starting on Tuesday, new users under 18 who sign up in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia will be given special "teen accounts" with restricted features and more parental oversight.

Existing Instagram users under 18 in those countries will also be migrated to teen accounts over the next 60 days.

"The three concerns we're hearing from parents are that their teens are seeing content that they don't want to see or that they're getting contacted by people they don't want to be contacted by or that they're spending too much on the app," said Naomi Gleit, head of product Instagram's parent company Meta.

"So teen accounts [are] really focused on addressing those three concerns."

What features do teen accounts restrict?

In addition to being private by default, teen accounts can also 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.

Instagram will send teen accounts notifications if the user is online for more than 60 minutes.

A "sleep mode" will also automatically mute notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m, and auto reply to messages telling people to contact the user during the daytime. 

Parents also have access to a suite of settings to monitor who their children are engaging with online.

"Parents will be able to see, via the family center, who is messaging their teen and hopefully have a conversation with their teen," Gleit said.

"If there is bullying or harassment happening, parents will have visibility into who their teen's following, who's following their teen, who their teen has messaged in the past seven days and hopefully have some of these conversations and help them navigate these really difficult situations online."

How can users turn off teen accounts?

All users under the age of 18 will be given teen accounts automatically.

Teens aged 16 and 17 can disable the restrictions in the settings.

However, children aged 15 and under will need their parents' permission to do so.

zc/rmt (AP, Reuters)