Instagram Introduces PG-13 Content Guidelines for Teens

Meta is tightening its grip on the content accessible to its teenage users on Instagram, limiting their exposure to material broadly in line with a PG-13 movie rating, the company announced this Tuesday. This move aims to provide a safer and more age-appropriate online experience for younger users, responding to growing concerns about the platform’s impact on adolescent mental health.

Under these refined content policies, Meta will actively filter specific accounts from teenagers’ feeds, targeting those that prominently feature sexualized imagery or content pertaining to drugs and alcohol. Furthermore, Instagram will no longer proactively recommend posts containing explicit language to teen users, although they retain the ability to manually search for such content.

These changes reflect a concerted effort by Meta to address ongoing criticism related to child safety and the potential mental health implications associated with its platform. Lawmakers and advocacy groups have increasingly scrutinized the company’s handling of these sensitive issues, pushing for stronger safeguards to protect young users.

Specifically, accounts with usernames or bios linking to adult-oriented websites, such as OnlyFans, or businesses like liquor stores will be shielded from view for teenage users. Teenagers will no longer be able to follow these types of accounts. If they already follow them, they will not be able to see or interact with content that is heavily adult themed.

Meta executives explained that while prior content protocols were already aligned with, or exceeded, PG-13 parameters, there was a noted ambiguity among parents regarding the precise nature of content accessible to teens on Instagram. By aligning teen-content policies more closely with familiar movie ratings, Meta aims to provide a clearer, more easily understood framework for parental oversight. This strategy hinges on leveraging a widely recognized rating system to bridge the communication gap between the platform and its users’ guardians.

“We decided to more closely align our policies with an independent standard that parents are familiar with, so we reviewed our age-appropriate guidelines against PG-13 movie ratings and updated them accordingly,” the company said in a blog post. “While of course there are differences between movies and social media, we made these changes so teens’ experience in the 13+ setting feels closer to the Instagram equivalent of watching a PG-13 movie.”

The social media giant has faced mounting pressure from lawmakers who assert that Meta has not adequately policed its platform for child-safety concerns. The new guidelines, however, represent a significant shift in Meta’s approach to content moderation for younger users illustrating the company’s ongoing battle with regulators who see Instagram as a place of potentially harmful outcomes for children and teens.

Meta faced scrutiny in 2021 when *The Wall Street Journal* published a report citing internal company research indicating the negative impact of Instagram, especially among teenage girls. These report details revealed alarming findings, suggesting a correlation between the platform’s usage and increased rates of anxiety, depression, and body image issues among young women. Other reports have described how easily teenagers can find drug related content on Instagram.

Over the past year, Meta has introduced several tools designed to provide parents with clearer insights into their teenagers’ usage patterns on the company’s apps. This included the rollout of new safety features in July, intended to simplify the process for teens to block and report accounts, while also providing more context on their interactions within the platform.

In August, the watchdog Tech Transparency Project released a report alleging Meta’s ties and sponsorship of the National Parent Teacher Association “gives a sheen of expert approval” to its “efforts to keep young users engaged on its platforms.” The National PTA said in a statement that it doesn’t endorse any social media platform, while Meta said at the time that it is “proud to partner with expert organizations to educate parents about our safety tools and protections for teens, as many other tech companies do.”

Meta’s rollout of these new Instagram content guidelines began this week in the U.S., UK, Australia, and Canada, with plans to expand to other regions. The move is expected to be highly scrutinized and its effectiveness will be judged on its ability to alter the culture and access of negative outcomes for young users.