Meta is expanding Teen Accounts to Facebook and Messenger around the world. The feature first launched on Instagram and is now being applied to hundreds of millions of teen profiles on Meta platforms.
Teen Accounts change how teens experience the apps by limiting who can contact them and what content they see. Teens under age 16 must get parental approval to relax these defaults. The settings include limits on direct messages and who can reply to stories.
What changes now
Teens will only receive messages from people they follow or who have messaged them before. Only friends can see and reply to a teen story. Tags, mentions, and comments are limited to people the teen follows or who are listed as friends. Meta will remind teens to take a break after an hour of use each day and will run Quiet mode during night hours.
Meta is also launching a School Partnership Program in the United States to let educators report serious safety concerns and to get faster review and removal. Participating schools will receive resources and a banner on Instagram to show they are an official partner.
What parents should know
The move comes as outside researchers and a whistleblower-led study found gaps in how well safety tools work. Independent reviews found that many protections can be bypassed and that teens still encounter content about suicide and sexual exploitation. Meta disputes some of those findings while defending the protective steps it has rolled out.
The change also follows broader public concern about social media and youth mental health. Federal health advisors have urged platforms to take stronger steps to protect young people and to offer clearer tools for parents and schools. State lawmakers are also considering new rules that would affect how teens use social apps.
The new Teen Accounts have seen families enjoy an easier default level of protection and more opportunities to receive assistance from schools. Parents are expected to go through settings with their teens and ensure that devices and passwords are stored in a secure location. Teenagers are advised to report and inform an adult immediately when they encounter harmful content. The independent safety groups advise parents not to stop discussing with teens how they use apps and when they feel distressed or insecure.
Meta says that it will keep on enhancing the tools and also track results as the rollout proceeds. The company characterizes the change as part of a bigger project to provide the families with greater control and to minimize harm, but maintain open channels of communication between teenagers and trusted adults.