Meta sets Instagram Teen accounts to PG-13 by default with parental controls

Meta said Tuesday it will by default limit what teenagers see on Instagram to content equivalent to a PG‑13 movie rating and will prevent teens from changing that setting without parental permission. The company said the change applies to Instagram Teen Accounts, available to users ages 13 to 17, and will be rolled out first in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada before expanding to additional countries in the coming months.

Meta said the PG‑13 standard will restrict posts that include explicit sexual content, graphic drug use, dangerous stunts and strong profanity, and will hide or demote recommendations for material that could encourage risky behavior, such as images of marijuana paraphernalia. The company said the limits will apply across Feed, Stories, Search, comments, recommendations and artificial intelligence experiences targeted to teens. Accounts that routinely share content designated for adults will be removed from recommendations and blocked from following, messaging or commenting on teen accounts; teens who already follow those accounts will no longer be able to see or interact with their posts, Meta said.

Instagram framed the update as an...