Meta expands Teen Accounts to Facebook and Messenger, introduces built-in restrictions for Instagram

Mumbai: After the introduction of Instagram Teen Accounts last year, the tech parent company Meta announced they will be expanding the experience to other Meta platforms like Facebook and Messenger too.  

Teen Accounts have built-in protections that limit who can contact teens and the content they see. Meta will automatically place teens into Teen Accounts, and teens under 16 need a parent’s permission to change any of these settings to be less strict. 

Since making these changes on Instagram, 97% of teens aged 13-15 have stayed in these built-in restrictions, Meta shared in a recent statement. 

In an attempt to support parents and teens, Meta has announced additional protections by expanding Teen Accounts to Facebook and Messenger that give parents more peace of mind across Meta apps. 

In addition to the existing built-in protections offered by Teen Accounts, Meta will be adding new restrictions for Instagram Live and unwanted images in DMs. With these changes, teens under 16 will be prohibited from going Live unless their parents give them permission to do so. It will also require teens under 16 to get parental permission to turn off our feature that blurs images containing suspected nudity in DMs. New updates will be available in the next couple of months.

Teen Accounts on Facebook and Messenger will offer similar, automatic protections to limit inappropriate content and unwanted contact, as well as ways to ensure teens’ time is well spent. We’ll begin rolling Facebook and Messenger Teen Accounts out to teens in the US, UK, Australia and Canada and will bring the experience to teens in other regions soon.

Since September 2024, there are at least 54 million active Teen Accounts globally with enhanced protections, like automatically being placed into private accounts and the strictest setting of our content controls. They also have notifications turned off overnight and reminders to leave the app after 60 minutes, and they can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to. 

A survey conducted by Meta suggested 94% of parents find Teen Accounts helpful and 85% believe Teen Accounts make it easier for them to help their teens have positive experiences on Instagram.

A strong majority of parents perceive the default protections provided by Teen Accounts as beneficial, with over 90% saying each of the features are helpful in supporting their teens on Instagram.