Ahead of the scheduled social media ban for teenagers in Australia aged 16 and under, Meta has announced an update to Instagram that will make it easier for parents and guardians to set appropriate permissions for their children’s accounts.
All teens under 18, living in Australia, the US, UK and Canada, will be automatically placed in a 13+ content setting. This default setting will limit exposure to material deemed inappropriate for under-18s and cannot be changed without parental approval.
While the updates will start rolling out for users from today, Australian teens aged under 16 will be locked out of Instagram when the social media ban comes into effect in Australia from 10 December. Once the ban is in effect, restricting all teen content to material suitable for younger teens seems like an ill-fit for an Australian audience.
US PG-13 standards become the benchmark for Instagram
Instagram will use US-style PG-13 movie ratings as the guiding framework for moderating age-appropriate content on teen accounts. In Australia, the PG classification is assigned to content that is not recommended for viewing by children under the age of 15 without guidance of a parent or guardian.
Australia also makes use of the MA15+ classification, which is more appropriate for an audience of teens aged 16 and above. The classification allows for more mature content inclusive of ‘strong themes, violence, coarse language, sexual references, or drug use.’
Meta claims the changes to content moderation align more closely with parental expectations, drawing on global feedback from thousands of families. It has cited a poll by Ipsos, commissioned by Meta, which found that 95% of US parents of teens believe the updated settings will be helpful, with a further 90% saying the PG-13 reference point will make it easier to understand the kind of content their teen is likely to see on Instagram.
Ipsos poll findings
It is the most substantial overhaul to Instagram’s Teen Accounts since their launch last year.
While some suggestive content or strong language may still occasionally appear — as it does in PG-13 films — Instagram said such instances would be rare.
In addition to existing restrictions around sexually suggestive material, violent imagery, and the promotion of adult products, Instagram will now de-emphasise content featuring strong language, dangerous stunts, or paraphernalia linked to drug use. Posts that go against the revised standards will be hidden across Explore, Reels, Stories and in-feed, even if shared by someone a teen follows.
Instagram will also deploy age-prediction technology to help enforce these settings, including for users who falsely list their age as over 18.
New ‘Limited Content’ mode for stricter controls
For parents seeking greater restrictions, Instagram has introduced a new setting called Limited Content. This stricter option filters even more content from a teen’s experience and disables commenting entirely. It will also tighten guardrails around AI interactions starting next year.
According to a September survey commissioned by Meta, 96 per cent of US parents said they valued having the additional Limited Content option.
Better tools for parental feedback
Instagram is also expanding ways for parents to shape their teen’s experience. Through the platform’s supervision tools, parents will be able to report specific posts they believe should be hidden from teen audiences. These posts will be prioritised for review, with outcomes shared back to the parent.
Ongoing feedback will be collected via in-app surveys that ask parents to assess whether specific content is appropriate for teens. Meta said it received more than 3 million content ratings from parents globally during testing, which helped inform the new PG-13 aligned policy.
Global rollout by end of year
The new teen safety settings are being gradually introduced and are expected to be fully implemented across Australia, the US, UK, and Canada by the end of 2025. Meta plans to expand these protections globally and bring similar measures to Facebook teen accounts.