Hundreds of Millions of Teens Are Now in Teen Accounts, Plus We’re Adding More Support for Schools and Teachers
Takeaways
We’ve placed hundreds of millions of teens in Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, and now we’re expanding them to teens around the world on Facebook and Messenger.
We’re launching the School Partnership Program to help educators report safety concerns, like bullying, directly to us for quicker review and removal.
We’re also expanding access to our online safety curriculum to teach middle schoolers how to stay safe online, including how to recognize and avoid scams and other types of exploitation.
A year ago, we introduced Teen Accounts – a significant step to help keep teens safe across our apps. As of today, we’ve placed hundreds of millions of teens in Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. Teen Accounts are already rolled out globally on Instagram and are further expanding to teens everywhere around the world on Facebook and Messenger today. Teen Account protections were designed to address parents’ top concerns with automatic protections to limit who their teens are talking to online and the content they’re seeing, and ensure their time is well spent. While there’s always more work to be done, we’re encouraged to see that Teen Accounts are bringing parents more peace of mind when it comes to their teens’ online experiences.
We want parents to feel good about their teens using social media. We know teens use apps like Instagram to connect with friends and explore their interests, and they should be able to do so without worrying about unsafe or inappropriate experiences. Teen Accounts are designed to give parents peace of mind. Since launching on Instagram a year ago, we’ve added limits on teens going Live, more restrictions in DMs, and also improved our ability to make sure people are in age-appropriate experiences. Supporting parents and helping teens use our apps safely is a responsibility we take seriously.
More Support for Schools and Teachers, in Addition to Parents
While we’re focused on providing young people with built-in protections and giving parents ways to directly manage their teens’ experiences, we recognize there are many who play a role in keeping teens safe – including teachers and schools. Today, we’re launching the School Partnership Program for all US middle and high schools. Developed with the International Society for Technology in Education and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, this program helps educators report safety concerns, like bullying, directly to us for quicker review. This means schools can report Instagram content or accounts that may violate our Community Standards for prioritized review, which we aim to complete within 48 hours.
We piloted this program over the past year and opened up a waitlist for schools to join in April. The program has helped us quickly respond to educators’ online safety concerns, and we’ve heard positive feedback from participating schools.
Now, all middle and high schools in the US can sign up for the School Partnership Program by visiting about.instagram.com/community/educators or directly in their Instagram settings by selecting Account Type and Tools or Business Tools and Controls. Full step by step instructions can be found here.
Schools that sign up to become school partners on Instagram receive prioritized reporting, educational resources to help their school community navigate social media, and a banner on their Instagram profile so parents and students know they’re an official Instagram partner.
Partnering with Instagram has been incredibly helpful in keeping our students and community safer online. I had an inside track and faster responses to reports of inappropriate behaviors online. As a principal of four years, responsible for over 700 students, I cannot stress enough the importance of new ways to keep kids safe in this changing world. I’m excited that more schools will get the chance to do this. I hope other technology platforms can also trust schools more and take down harmful posts.
Reaching a Million Middle Schoolers With Online Safety Curriculum
Earlier this year, we announced that we partnered with Childhelp to develop a first-of-its-kind online safety curriculum specifically for middle schoolers. Educators who have signed up for the curriculum tell us that they estimate reaching 550,000 middle schoolers in the US in the coming year, with a goal of reaching one million students.
The curriculum, created in collaboration with leading child safety experts, teaches middle schoolers how to stay safe online, including how to spot potential signs of online exploitation, and what to do if they or someone they know needs help. Fully funded by Meta, the curriculum is free and available to all, and includes everything parents and educators need – from detailed facilitator training to fully scripted lessons, with interactive activities and videos.
We also know that sometimes middle schoolers prefer to discuss these topics with people closer in age. That’s why we partnered with the team at LifeSmarts, who have adapted the curriculum to empower high school students to teach it to their younger peers. This new peer-led version of the curriculum is available now.
As part of our commitment to supporting parents and protecting teens, we’re always working on new ways to keep teens safe on our apps, and we’ll share more updates soon.