Starting today, Instagram will place all old and new accounts whose owners are under 18 years old in the “Teen Accounts” category. This seemingly simple action will revolutionize the way millions of people interact with Instagram.
Being in the category of juvenile accounts automatically activates some security features for users. Only users 16 and older can disable some features.
According to Meta’s press release, the account of all minors on Instagram (not just those under the age of 16) will be set to private by default and some of the platform’s current restrictions will be enabled; Like preventing strangers from sending private messages.
Some new features are also on the way; Including the Sleep Mode feature that disables all notifications from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM.
Teen users can choose topics suitable for their age to be displayed on the main page and the explorer section; Like sports, animals and travel. Instagram restricts some content in Rails and Explorer to minors and will continue to send warning messages to close the app after prolonged use.
Meta
In addition to the mentioned changes, Instagram applies changes in the parental control section. Parents can now see who their children have messaged in the last seven days (without seeing the contents of the messages). They can also see their children’s favorite topics.
16-year-old users can change some settings; But younger users need to get permission from their parents to make any changes.
The new Instagram changes are now rolling out to users in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. Teens who create a new account will see the changes before everyone else, and then within a week, the changes will be applied to existing accounts. Meta will bring Teen Accounts to the European Union before the end of this year, and then roll out the feature to other users and platforms in 2025.
Instagram understands that some users may escape restrictions by changing their age. In this context, all users who want to change their age from less than 18 years to more than 18 years, must take a video of themselves and upload their national ID card or verify their age by other users. Instagram’s new systems are going to take the authentication process to a deeper level.
Instagram’s authentication system can now use artificial intelligence to identify signals that indicate the user’s age. For example, if a user declares his age as 18, but a friend tells him “Happy 14th birthday”, Instagram will detect the real age.
