Instagram is introducing the biggest overhaul to Teen Accounts since they first launched, with new parental control options. The social media platform will now use content guidelines inspired by PG-13 movie ratings. The new protections start rolling out Tuesday to Teen Accounts in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, with a full rollout expected by the end of the year. After that, Meta plans to bring the same updates to teens globally and eventually extend them to Facebook as well.
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The idea is simple -- if a teen can't watch something in a PG-13 film, they shouldn't be seeing it on Instagram either. Under the new rules, teens under 18 will automatically be placed into this PG-13-style experience and won't be able to opt out without a parent's approval.
How Instagram's new PG-13 filters work
Instagram's new content moderation settings affect everything from Feeds and Stories to comments, search results and even the kinds of accounts teens can follow. Instagram says this will effectively stop teens from seeing or interacting with pages that frequently share adult or otherwise inappropriate material. A study reported on by Time magazine suggests that nearly 60% of teens aged 13-15 encounter unsafe content or unwanted messages on Instagram.
The new system doesn't just filter obvious adult themes -- it also hides strong language, dangerous stunts and posts that could encourage risky behaviors, such as posts that show marijuana or vaping paraphernalia.
This is what Instagram's new PG-13 content settings will look like when you first use them in the social media app Instagram/Meta
There's also a new setting called Limited Content, meant for parents who want to go even further. This mode strips away even more of Instagram's social features, including the ability for teens to see or leave comments, and will soon restrict AI interactions, too. For some families, the PG-13 baseline might already feel strict enough, but for others, the option to clamp down further adds additional control.
It's clear that Instagram is trying to strike a balance between realism and protection. The company admits that, just like in a PG-13 film, some suggestive content might still slip through, but says it's working to make those cases increasingly rare. Meta uses age prediction tools to attempt to prevent users pretending to be older don't simply bypass the new system.
Parents have been directly involved in shaping these updates, with thousands of them rating millions of real Instagram posts to help determine what should and shouldn't appear in the new teen experience. According to Meta's own Ipsos survey, 95% of US parents said these changes would help, and 90% said they'd make Instagram's teen experience easier to understand.