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Instagram: Teen Accounts

Updated: August 2026
Last verified: August 2026. Platforms change their menus often — visit this page for the latest version.
Minimum age: 13 | Teen Accounts required for all users under 18

What Teen Accounts are

These are accounts with automatic restrictions for users under 18. Since October 2025 all teens are placed in a content level built for 13-and-up, which Meta compares to the PG-13 movie rating, and they cannot leave that level without your permission.

What they include out of the box

Turning on supervision

  1. In the app, go to Settings and activity > Family Center > Supervision for teen accounts.
  2. Send your teen the invitation. You can also do it from familycenter.meta.com/supervision.
  3. Your teen has to accept it for supervision to take effect.
  4. Once linked, you manage everything from Family Center.

What supervision gives you

What's new in 2026

Through 2026 Meta finished rolling out globally what it had been testing in a few countries. Since June 2, any under-18 account on Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger defaults to the 13+ content level. In practice this hides inappropriate posts from the feed and Reels, limits your teen's interaction with profiles or groups that post that material, and on Messenger stops them chatting with accounts that share it.

July brought two more things. Threads, Meta's text network, finally has parental supervision: you can see how long they spent each day over the past week, set a daily limit, block the app on certain days and hours, and control who can tag them. It started in the US and Meta says it will expand worldwide before year's end.

And the second: if your teen tells the Meta AI assistant something suggesting they may be considering self-harm, you now get an alert. A person reviews it first, and it does not show you the conversation: it tells you that it happened, not what was said. It requires Instagram supervision to already be active.

These tools help; they do not solve. On July 10, 2026, the European Commission preliminarily concluded that the addictive design of Instagram and Facebook breaches EU digital services law. It is a preliminary finding and Meta can respond, but it serves as a reminder: controls reduce exposure, they do not change how the app is built.

Warning signs to watch for

Tip: Teen Accounts apply restrictions on their own, but supervision gives you something they do not: visibility into time and contacts. Linking the two accounts is worth doing even if your teen is already protected by default.
Meta Family Center →