Governance

Meta Adds New Safety Features for Teen Instagram Accounts

JUL 24 2025·Updated JUL 25 2025

Story

Above: The Instagram logo, taken on July 20, 2025. Image credit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

The Facts

Meta announced new safety features on Wednesday for Teen Accounts on Instagram, including options for teens to view safety tips, block accounts, and see when accounts joined Instagram, all displayed at the top of direct message chats.
Engadget
Meta
The company reported that in June alone, teens blocked accounts one million times and reported another one million accounts after seeing Safety Notices, while 99% of users kept the nudity protection feature activated. According to Pew Research, 61% of U.S. teens aged 13 to 17 use Instagram.
Mashable
Meta
Pew Research Center
Meta removed nearly 135,000 Instagram accounts earlier this year for leaving sexualized comments or requesting sexual images from adult-managed accounts featuring children under 13.
Mashable
Meta
The platform is extending Teen Account protections to adult-managed accounts that primarily feature children, including automatic strictest message settings and Hidden Words filtering for offensive comments.
Engadget
Meta
Meta launched a combined block and report option in direct messages, allowing users to take both actions together in one tap, and introduced Location Notice alerts to inform users when chatting with someone from another country.
Engadget
Meta
The company will avoid recommending adult-managed child accounts to potentially suspicious adults who have been blocked by teens and will make it harder for them to find these accounts through search features.
Engadget
Meta

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The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

Meta empowers teens with digital autonomy while providing essential safety tools. Their approach combines education on bullying, privacy, and sextortion with proactive features like nudity protection and location notices. The results prove effective: teens used safety features over two million times in June alone, showing that respecting youth agency alongside robust protections works.

Establishment-critical narrative

Meta's Teen Account protections fail despite safety promises. Independent testing found 100% of test accounts received algorithmically-recommended sensitive and sexual content, with most exposed to harmful body image material. Meta's broader retreat from safety prioritizes engagement over teen protection, creating chaotic digital spaces where harm thrives unchecked.