Meta moves to restrict under-18 Instagram users ahead of Australia's potential social media age law

Meta has announced that the digital profiles of minors joining Instagram will be set to restrictive "teen accounts" by default and the existing teen accounts will be migrated within 60 days, in order to let parents have better control over their activities.

The new move comes in the wake of the Australian government's plan to implement a law to raise the age of children, who can access social media platforms, up to an age between 14 and 16, which is yet to be defined, The Guardian reported. If the proposed legislation is approved by the Parliament, Australia could become the first country to implement a ban.

Other than Australia, the new rules will be applicable to people in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada.

Social media platforms have been under fire on how the unsafe environment is impacting young users.

Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, however denied that the move to introduce teen accounts is a result of any government legislation, and added that the decision is to give more control to parents.

"Parents everywhere are thinking about these issues," Meta's director of global safety, Antigone Davis, said. "The technology at this point is pretty much ubiquitous, and parents are thinking about it. From the perspective of youth safety, it really does make the most sense to be thinking about these kinds of things globally and addressing parents' concerns globally."

As the teen accounts will by default come under the strictest privacy settings, parents can set the time their wards use the social media app, have access to the content they are viewing, see the accounts that are exchanging messages with them and mute notifications at night.

The new settings also bar adults from messaging teens, who don't follow them, restrict sensitive content and filter offensive phrases in posts and messages.

Meta said that it would proactively track accounts that pretend to be adults and automatically place them under teen accounts, Associated Press reported.

Without going into details about how the changes will impact its business, the company stated the teens may use less of Instagram, though it could be short term.

Emarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg said the impact on the company's revenue would be minimal, adding that the new settings might not have the desired effect as users would find ways to "circumvent the rules."

"Even as Meta continues to prioritize teen safety, it's unlikely that it's going to make sweeping changes that would cause a major financial hit," she said.

Despite the several controls the company has introduced in recent years, parents hardly use them, Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs, pointed out.

Naomi Gleit, head of product at Meta, hoped the new settings would prod the parents to begin using the controls.

"Parents will be able to see, via the family center, who is messaging their teen and hopefully have a conversation with their teen," she said. "If there is bullying or harassment happening, parents will have visibility into who their teen's following, who's following their teen, who their teen has messaged in the past seven days and hopefully have some of these conversations and help them navigate these really difficult situations online."

Davis said the company may consider extending similar safety rules for Facebook.