You may have noticed a drastic change in your Instagram account. That is, if you are under the age of 18.
“I noticed that every time I tried to scroll on an image or a video, it would force a pop-up that I need to update and I can’t scroll past it,” said freshman Eric Pullum.
The “it” was a full paragraph about teens being moved to a restricted account, “It said it can’t be changed until the account is over 18, or until someone goes into the settings to change the date,” Pullum said.
Instagram has not made it easy to change the date of birth in the app. So millions of teens, including those here at Englewood High School are now under the new restrictions.
On September 17, 2024, Instagram put anyone under the age of 18 who is signing up for an account or who has an existing account into a restricted teen account mode, according to Instagram, this will make the platform safer and appropriate for children to use.
The pop-up notices say Instagram will include many new features like limiting interaction and restricting messages so they can only get messages from people they follow or if they are already connected, like a family member. It also restricts sensitive content which includes any fighting videos or any content promoting cosmetic procedures and any sensitive content that is deemed inappropriate. Teens will also have a time limit on Instagram and can only be on the app for 60 minutes each day before getting a notification telling them to leave the app.
Instagram will even have a sleep mode feature, turning on from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and muting any notifications. Instagram will also label teen accounts as private.
The new rules also state that anyone under 16 will need their parents’ permission to be able to fix the built-in protection or remove them from the teen mode. Instagram also has a supervision feature so parents can get involved with their teen’s experience and see who their teen was talking to over the past seven days. They won’t be able to see their messages. It is restricted to only seeing the person they are talking with. Parents can also set a daily time limit for their teens to be on Instagram. They can also block their teens from using Instagram at night or during any specific time period. They will also be able to see the type of content their teen is interacting with during the day.
Junior Ophelia Durgin noticed the change back in October of this year, “I think I got a pop-up mentioning something about a teen account. I also noticed it in my settings and what a teen account features.”
(Ophelia Durgin)
According to Instagram, teen accounts are currently only available in some locations and will be introduced globally in early 2025.
“A teen account includes stuff like time management, you can turn on and off a daily limit. There are regulations on what you can see. I think it’s useful because teen safety on the internet is important.” Dugin said.
Because the teen accounts are being rolled out individually, parents and guardians may have a teen on a restricted account before some of their peers.
Some EHS teens say there is a way around it. When the pop-up shows your time is up, options come up giving teens choices, 30 more minutes, five more minutes or you can choose to ignore the restrictions
