Instagram Introduces New Restrictions for Teen Accounts in India

Instagram announced on Tuesday new restrictions for teen accounts in an effort to enhance the safety of teenagers on its platform.

The measures will be applied in India which is one of Instagram’s largest markets, with over 350 million users. 

These changes follow a similar rollout in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia last year.

Instagram will automatically place users under 16 into accounts with built-in restrictions, including privacy protection, messaging controls, and interaction limits.

Teens under 16 will require parental or guardian approval to change certain account settings. Parents of older teens (16+) can activate supervision, allowing them to see who their child interacts with—though they won’t have access to private messages.

Parents can set daily time limits and block access during specific hours. Teens will also receive reminders for screen time limits and a "quiet mode" to encourage healthier usage.

Teens will only receive messages from people they follow, and offensive words and phrases will be filtered automatically. Additionally, violent content and beauty product promotions will be removed from the Explore and Reels sections.

Teens can customize their Explore feed by selecting topics of interest, such as football, crafts, music, food, and science.

Instagram will use AI-based tools, such as video selfies, to verify user ages and prevent teens from misrepresenting their age.

This move aligns with India’s recent draft regulations on data protection, which prohibit companies from processing data of users under 18 without parental consent.