Instagram's Teen Accounts Get a Movie-Like Update

While the EU is discussing raising the age limit for social media to 15 years, Instagram is introducing further restrictions for young teenagers in a kind of preemptive obedience. On the one hand, the settings for the existing teen accounts should be easier to use. On the other hand, the content will be further restricted.

Teenagers with teen accounts will in future only be shown content that corresponds to the US-American PG-13 ratings. This in turn roughly corresponds to the German FSK 12. These classifications actually come from the film world. Instagram explains that it should give parents a better idea of what children and teenagers are allowed to see. Films like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings are suitable for twelve-year-olds. The currently popular series Wednesday is also suitable from the age of 12 – with the exception of three episodes that are too brutal.

This means that depictions of violence and nudity are only permitted to a very limited extent on the platform anyway, but both will be further restricted if someone uses a teen account. Parents can also make further restrictions. The settings should now be easier to find and understand across all areas. However, parents also need an Instagram account to link it to a child's account and make settings via it.

What Instagram says doesn't happen: further evaluation of content. So it's not about showing teenagers pedagogically valuable content.

Instagram's parent company Meta does not say how many teenagers use teen accounts. The functional enhancement was also planned independently of the efforts in the EU. It is a worldwide change to teen accounts, which will initially be available in the USA and is expected to be available in the EU in the first quarter of 2026.

Meta is generally in favor of an age restriction for social media. Which age exactly should be affected is gladly left to politics. However, as Alexander Kleist, Public Policy Manager for Instagram in Germany, explains, Meta would wish that parents have the final say and allow their children to use social media earlier. Of course, this means that parents ultimately bear the responsibility. Meta wants to contribute its part by giving parents control options and preventing teenagers from seeing certain content.

Legal Regulation for Social Media

Currently, there is no uniform law in Germany that sets a minimum age for social media. However, there are regulations from the Interstate Treaty on the Protection of Youth in the Media and the Youth Protection Act. These state what content children and adolescents must be protected from. In addition, the GDPR regulates how personal data of children and adolescents must be handled – they may not be evaluated for advertising purposes. Both lead to most social networks setting an age limit of 13 themselves and also offering special teen accounts.

The Danish government has now taken the initiative to generally allow social media in the EU only from the age of 15. This means: use would be prohibited below this age limit. From the age of 13, a kind of supervised scrolling should be possible if parents allow it. In Australia there is such a law, which prohibits use under 16 years of age. However, this is not just about the concern that children might see depictions of violence or nudity, but about quite other damaging processes. Teenagers see influencers in a perfectly presented world, can watch endless pictures and videos thanks to infinity scrolling, and receive unsuitable tips of all kinds. Nevertheless, Instagram, for example, offers useful craft tips, recipes, and the opportunity to find other people with similar interests.

(emw)