"Not Suitable for Under 19"... Instagram Strengthens Content Exposure Standards for Teen Accounts

Instagram is expanding its protection features for teen accounts, including strengthening safety standards for content displayed to teenagers.

On May 11, Meta announced that the enhanced protection features for teen accounts, which were introduced last October in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, will be expanded to the Asia-Pacific region, including Korea.

The newly updated teen accounts are characterized by stricter safety standards for displayed content. Meta provides teen users with a content environment equivalent to that of movies rated for ages 13 and older in the United States.

Not only will the platform continue to restrict sexually suggestive content, violent imagery, and content intended for adults from teen accounts, but it will now also limit posts containing coarse language or dangerous behavior, as well as content that encourages potentially harmful actions. These new content exposure standards will apply across all Instagram services, including the feed, stories, comments, direct messages (DMs), and search.

Teen accounts will not be able to regularly share age-inappropriate content or follow accounts with inappropriate usernames or profile descriptions.

Instagram is also introducing a ‘Restricted Content’ setting for parents. This feature will allow parents to manage the content displayed to their teens, as well as control their teen’s ability to view, post, and receive comments on posts.

The enhanced settings for teen accounts will also be applied to teen accounts on Facebook and Messenger in the future.

The teen account feature, introduced in Korea early last year, is aimed at users aged 14 to 18 and applies default settings such as: account visibility, who can contact them, the types of content displayed, and time management protection features. Teen users utilize private accounts and can take advantage of functions such as the ‘Hidden Words’ feature, which conceals offensive language in DMs, and ‘Sleep Mode,’ which limits notifications.

A Meta representative stated, “We will continue to improve our safety policies and protection measures so that both parents and teenagers can use the platform with confidence.”