Parents, note: Instagram wants no blame for your teen’s account

Every month, around 2 billion people use Instagram. For context, the world’s population is 8.2 billion, meaning approximately 25 per cent of people globally use Instagram. A significant portion of this number comprises the younger population, who are often exposed to content that can be distressing, uncensored, and unsettling even for adults on this platform.
This ‘content consumption’ has always bothered a lot of parents, who have time and again raised concerns regarding the policies of their content consumption for kids, and actions, if at all, taken by Meta (Instagram’s parent company) for the safety and security of the company.

Around 25 per cent of the World’s population use Instagram. Photo: Unsplash

Things seem to have got even worse for Meta, when, in 2021, Frances Haugen, a Facebook product manager who left the company said the trillion-dollar company is well aware of the content they are sending to the children and yet has repeatedly put ‘its own interests first rather than the public’s’.
Three years later, Meta has recently launched an account for teens, where they are ‘reimagining their apps for teens’, but experts are still not sure about this newest feature.
Meta plans to start rolling out teen accounts within the next two months in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, and to start placing them in teen accounts in the European Union later this year.
Teens across the globe (including India) will start getting teen accounts in January, and by next year, all of Meta’s platforms, including Facebook, will offer these accounts to users under 16. While the company hasn’t yet revealed exactly what a teen account will look like, they have teased a few features, such as:
The teen account will be a default private account, and they will need to accept new followers and people who don’t follow them can’t see their content or interact with them.
According to Meta, teens will be placed in the ‘strictest messaging settings’, so they can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to.

The teen account will be a default private account and can be changed only after parent’s permission. Photo: Meta

Meta states that teen accounts will be automatically set to the most restrictive level of sensitive content control. This feature limits the exposure of teens to sensitive material, such as depictions of fighting or content promoting cosmetic procedures, in areas like Explore and Reels.
Teens can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow. Moreover, teens will be placed in the most restrictive version of Meta’s anti-bullying feature, which will automatically filter out offensive words and phrases from teens’ comments and DM requests.
Teens will get notifications telling them to leave the app after 60 minutes each day.
Sleep mode will be turned on between 10 pm and 7 am, which will mute notifications overnight and send auto replies to DMs.
Finally, if any teen wants to change these settings, they will need their parent’s permission (they need to approve these settings from their account) to use less protective settings.
Moreover, according to Meta, if parents want more oversight over their older teen’s (16+) experiences, they simply have to turn on parental supervision.
Then, they can approve any changes to these settings, irrespective of their teen’s age.

Experts suggest many parents might not even know how to monitor their child’s online activities. Photo: Unsplash

Now, at first glance, these shiny new features might seem like the magic fix for all concerns about teen safety and security. But fast-forward a few days, and after experts had time to dig into the fine print, it appears these policies fall short of tackling the real issue—addiction. And, as science has shown, that’s the root cause of a whole heap of problems, especially when it comes to teenagers’ mental health.
Let’s look at some of these concerns, one by one.
We have all been there. Hiding our phones and ourselves under the blanket to use our smartphones, and making sure that our parents don’t see us. Finding loopholes and sneaking out a way of restrictions is something that is a rite of passage that a lot of kids take (remember Lane AKA Christine Keiko Agena from the ‘Gilmore Girls’?).

A still from ‘Gilmore Girls’ of Lane Kim and her mother. Photo: Netflix

“Strict parents create sneaky kids,” says Bryant A Loney, an American author. He is nowhere wrong. In fact, a study of 600 children aged 8 to 10 found that children with authoritarian parents had more conduct problems, including defiant behaviour, hyperactivity, aggression, and antisocial behaviour. The study also found that these children had more emotional problems and less prosocial behaviour.
Hence, any restrictions placed on kids, if not implemented properly, might impact the child’s and parents’ relationship, according to experts.
“This policy could create a barrier if not handled carefully. Teens naturally seek more independence, especially online. If they feel their parents are being too controlling or invasive, they might start hiding their social media use or create secret accounts,” Riddhi Doshi Patel, a Mumbai-based child psychologist and parenting counsellor.
This ‘barrier’ can be easily created in a country like India, where parents are more likely to place a restriction, rather than having an open discussion.
However, Riddhi says one can avoid this barrier by doing the bare minimum i.e., communicating. “Parents should explain why they are involved in their teen’s online behaviour and build trust so that teens feel comfortable discussing their online experiences,” she adds.
In India, only 38% of households are digitally literate. While phones and the internet are reaching even the remotest villages, digital literacy still has a long way to go. Parents seem to struggle the most with technology, whereas kids – especially Gen Alpha – are becoming smarter and more tech-savvy with each passing day.
If you’ve made it this far into the article, there’s a good chance you’re digitally savvy, and handling your kids’ Instagram parental settings might not be a challenge for you. But for a large portion of people in India, it still is.

Studies show around 65 per cent of those between ages 8-10 already spend up to 4 hours a day on social media. Photo: Getty Images

“While the policy makes sense in terms of protecting teens, in India, it could face challenges. Not all parents are familiar with social media platforms or privacy settings. Many may not even know how to monitor their child’s online activities. In such cases, requiring parental permission for changes like making accounts public might not be practical. It could lead to teens becoming secretive about their online activities if they feel their parents can’t keep up with the technology,” says Riddhi.
We are all the victims of doom-scrolling. Spending our time on social media, and especially on Reels or short video content, is something that every one of us does, but very few of us realise how it is impacting us and our mental health. Psychologist Sumanpreet Kaur Khanna and founder of Mind Unwind notes that a recent study indicates that young people who use social media are at higher risk of mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, attention problems, and reduced physical activity.
“Social media also disrupt their sleep patterns, as the endless scrolling provides a continuous dopamine rush, keeping them glued to the platform,” he says.
Even though one of the key features of Meta’s teen accounts is a notification or reminder prompting kids to leave the platform after 60 minutes, it’s all too easy for them to simply ignore it and continue using the app. Some experts suggest that a stricter rule, such as cutting off access after 60 minutes, might be more effective. A simple reminder, however, may not do the trick.

A recent study indicates that young people who use social media are at higher risk of mental health issues. Photo: Getty Images

Finally, it’s far too easy for kids to access ‘adult accounts’ by simply lying about their ages.
Sumanpreet mentions that requiring age verification tools is a step in the right direction for Meta, even though kids can easily circumvent these measures. For instance, there’s good chance youngsters will just lie about their ages on Instagram and other apps. Meta claims they’re working on a solution, but for now, they haven’t cracked it.
Bottomline, what Meta has done is handed the responsibility of a teenager’s account to the parents for the time being. It wants no share in the game if anything were to go haywire.
(India Today has reached out to Meta for a comment, and the story will be updated when we hear from them.)