Helping your teen navigate Instagram safely

Every teen who is under 16 years old (or under 18 in certain countries) will be defaulted into a private account when they join Instagram. Private accounts let people control who sees or responds to their content. If you have a private account, people have to follow you to see your posts, Stories and Reels unless you choose to allow others to reshare your content. People also can’t comment on your content in those places.

We make it more difficult for adults who have been exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior to interact with teens, by restricting these adults from seeing teen accounts in ‘Suggested Users’ and preventing them from discovering teen content in Reels or Explore.

Help your teen avoid unwanted interactions by encouraging them to use “Comment Controls”. Our reporting and blocking tools also allow them to manage who can comment on their posts. We also make it more difficult for adults who have been exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior to interact with teens, by automatically hiding their comments on public posts by teens.

Help your teen manage their time on Instagram by using features in the Activity Dashboard, such as daily reminders and mute push notifications. You can also use the Family Center to see how much time they’re spending on Instagram, and set limits.

We default teens under 16 into the “Less” setting of our Sensitive Content Control, which limits teens’ exposure to potentially sensitive content. Your teen can also make changes to this setting. Work with them to visit their profile, and tap the settings menu in the upper right corner. Tap Settings, Account, then select Sensitive Content Control. Tap next to “Less” to see less content they may find upsetting. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to provide a safer experience for young people.