1 month ago
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By Tim Biggs
Updated October 15, 2025 — 12.26pm
Young users of Instagram in Australia will soon face a significantly restricted experience after Meta announced new global changes to its Teen Accounts program, in addition to the federal government’s incoming social media restrictions.
The Facebook and Instagram parent company said all users under 18 would have their accounts restricted by default, meaning they would not see content involving sex, drugs or dangerous stunts, and would be blocked from viewing accounts flagged as including such content. Adults supervising teens with their own account will be able to override the restrictions or impose harsher ones.
Meta has announced that teenagers on Instagram will be restricted to seeing PG-13 content by default.Credit: Bloomberg
Combined with the government’s new social media rules, coming into effect in two months, this means users will not be able to use Instagram until they are 16, at which point they will be able to access a censored version unless their parents agree to remove the restrictions.
Swinburne University digital media expert Belinda Barnet said Meta’s move showed that Australia’s pressure was having a global positive effect, despite criticism of the social media ban on technical grounds.
“It means the ban is working exactly as intended,” she said. “All the critics seem to have missed this intention: we want the platforms to take responsibility for the content kids see.”
Meta said its changes, due to finish rolling out by the end of this year, were designed to limit teen accounts to the level of explicit content seen in an American PG-rated film.
“This includes hiding or not recommending posts with strong language, certain risky stunts, and additional content that could encourage potentially harmful behaviours, such as posts showing marijuana paraphernalia,” Meta said in a blog post on Tuesday, calling the update the most significant since it introduced teen accounts last year.
Teens will no longer be able to follow accounts that regularly share “age-inappropriate content” or if their name or bio contains something that isn’t appropriate for teens, such as a link to an OnlyFans account, Meta said.
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If teens already follow these accounts, they’ll no longer be able to see or interact with their content, send them messages, or see their comments under anyone’s posts, the company said. The accounts also won’t be able to follow teens, send them private messages or comment on their posts.
The PG-13 update will also apply to artificial intelligence chats and experiences targeted to teens, Meta said, “meaning AIs should not give age-inappropriate responses that would feel out of place in a PG-13 movie”.
Meta said it would implement automated age verification and detection measures to determine if a user claiming to be an adult is actually a teen.
These measures are similar to those it will need to implement to comply with the incoming Australian rules, which require social media companies to take reasonable steps to block children from their services.
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