Introducing Sensitive Content Control

Something has become increasingly clear over the years – people have very different views about the experience we offer, and if it’s the right one for them. We believe people should be able to shape Instagram into the experience that they want. We’ve started to move in this direction with tools like the ability to turn off comments, or Restrict someone from interacting with you on Instagram. Today we’re taking another step and launching what we call “Sensitive Content Control,” which allows you to decide how much sensitive content shows up in Explore.

We’ve always had rules about what kind of content can be on Instagram, which we call Community Guidelines, and the point of these guidelines is to keep people safe. We don’t allow hate speech, bullying, and other content that might present a risk of harm to people. We also have rules about what kind of content we show you in places like Explore; we call these our Recommendation Guidelines. These guidelines were designed to help ensure that we don’t show you sensitive content from accounts you don’t follow. You can think of sensitive content as posts that don’t necessarily break our rules, but could potentially be upsetting to some people – such as posts that may be sexually suggestive or violent.

This new feature gives you control over sensitive content. You can decide to leave things as they are, assuming you’re satisfied with your experience today, or you can adjust the Sensitive Content Control to see more or less of some types of sensitive content. We recognize that everybody has different preferences for what they want to see on Explore, and this control will give people more choice over what they see.

To view your Sensitive Content Control, go to your profile, tap the Settings menu in the upper right corner, tap Account, then tap Sensitive Content Control. Here you can decide whether to keep the setting at its default state (“Standard”) or to see more (“More”) or less of some types of sensitive content (“Less”). You can change your selection at any time. One exception to this: the “Allow” option will not be available to people under 18.

Our hope is that this gives you more choice, another way to make Instagram work better for you.

For more information about Instagram’s new Sensitive Content Control, you can visit the Help Center.