Instagram Brings Teen Accounts With Additional Protections to Users in India

Instagram is introducing its Teen Accounts functionality to users in India, as part of ongoing efforts to keep younger users safe on the Meta-owned platform. The feature restricts the functionality of accounts owned by underage users on the service, while requiring parental consent to change some settings on the platform. Instagram will also allow parents of users above the age of 16 to enable supervision features, and certain offensive words and phrases will be filtered out of messages and comments.

Instagram Teen Accounts Begin Rolling Out to Users in Phases

In a blog post announcing the expansion of Teen Accounts in India, Instagram said it will set teen accounts to private by default, for existing users under 16 and new users under 18. Private accounts limit interaction to approved users, which means that other accounts on Instagram won't be able to see teenagers' posts or comment on them.

Younger users will only be allowed to message accounts they have added on the service. Tags and mentions will also be limited on Teen Accounts, and the service will block offensive terms that could be used to harass or bully younger users via comments and messages.

Instagram also places limits on access to content for Teen Accounts, and it will filter out cosmetic procedure advertisements from the Explore tab or from Reels, as well as content that shows physical fights. Once teenagers have used the app for 60 minutes in a day, it will ask them to exit, while Sleep Mode will be automatically turned on between 10pm and 7am, according to the platform.

Improved Parental Controls, Age Verification Measures

Parents will also be able to supervise their teens on Instagram, including seeing a list of who they messaged on the platform over the last seven days. The service won't show parents the contents of their children's messages. Parents can also set daily limits that block access to Instagram after a particular time limit or during sleep mode.

Instagram says that some younger users do not provide their correct age while signing up for the platform. In order to combat this, the service is improving its age verification methods — including using ID cards or video selfies — to make sure that all accounts held by younger users are designated as Teen Accounts on the platform.