On Tuesday, Sept. 17, Instagram’s parent company, Meta, introduced new restrictions for teenagers under 18 that are wrapped up in a new feature called, “Teen Accounts.” These restrictions include making accounts private by default, changing who teens can message on the platform, stricter content restrictions and time limits, all of which are supervised by a parent or guardian.

A large part of these Teen Accounts is that parents have control. For example, parents can see who their teen has messaged in the past seven days, though they can’t view any messages their teen has sent or received. This is achieved through a feature where a parent, with their own account, can “supervise” a teen’s account. When both accounts accept an invite to supervise, the parent gains access to a dashboard with tools and insights into their teen’s account. This feature also allows teens under 16 to request to change settings on their account.

“I feel like you (teens) should have your own say,” junior Grant Johnson said. “Especially if you’re over 16, because if you’re able to drive a car, you should own your own account.”

Meta’s efforts to protect teens on Instagram dates back to 2021, when, by default, new accounts with a birthday under 16 years of age were private, but users could voluntarily opt-out and make their accounts public without any restriction. With Teen Accounts, users under 16 need parent supervision turned on to change this setting. Sixteen and seventeen year-olds can change this setting without the feature.

In recent years, Meta has been under scrutiny for not implementing sufficient measures to protect children and teens on Instagram. Earlier this year, Meta’s chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg was urged to apologize to families directly by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri at a Congressional hearing regarding child online safety.

“I think this change will impact teens negatively,” junior Jeremiah Keele said. “They’re going to be so obsessed about the fact that their parents have control over the account, rather than seeing what the account can actually do good for them.”

Teen Accounts are currently rolling out in a 60-day period to teens 13-17 in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and will automatically turn on for existing accounts and new accounts.