For the first time in history, Instagram on Tuesday announced the launch of accounts designed specifically for teen users, with built-in privacy protections.

The new accounts, called “Teen Accounts,” will be automatically accessible to all Instagram users under 18, both teens already using the app and teens who sign up.

Instagram users under the age of 16 must have parental permission by default to change their account settings.

The changes, which are expected to impact tens of millions of users, were announced by Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri in a live interview on “Good Morning America.”

“They’re an automatic set of protections for teens that proactively try to address the biggest concerns we hear from parents about teens online,” Mosseri said on “GMA.” “Things like who can contact them, what content they see, how much time they spend on their device … all without the parent having to be involved.”

Mosseri said the rollout of Teen Accounts will begin Tuesday with new users signing up for the app, while existing teen users’ accounts will be transitioned to the new Teen Accounts model within 60 days.

Among the changes Instagram has made is a new privacy setting that is set by default to: places all teenage users in private accountsTo switch to a public account, teens under 16 need parental permission.

With a private account, teens must accept new followers. Only the people they accept as followers can see their content and interact with them.

In addition, teenage users will now automatically can only send messages to people they followor are already connected to, and Parents get a new instrument in their settings so they can see who their teen has recently messaged.

The new accounts give teens the power to Choose the topics that are appropriate for the age They want to see more on Instagram, for example sports or art. In addition, parents can see what topics their teens choose.

To limit the time spent on Instagram, Teen accounts are put into ‘sleep mode’“between 10pm and 7am. Parents can also adjust their child’s time settings, for example by completely restricting access at night, in the parental control tool.

Another change for Teen Accounts is that they will automatically be more restrictive content settingslimiting the content they see in search features like Reels or Explore from accounts they don’t follow, Instagram said.

Antigone Davis, vice president and global head of safety for Meta, Instagram’s parent company, told “GMA” that the company is also implementing new ways to verify users’ ages.

“We’re building technology to try to identify whether you’ve lied about your age and then put you into those more restrictive settings,” Davis said. “This is a challenging area for the industry, and so in addition to building that technology that will try to identify age liars and put them into those protective settings, we’re also going to have times where, if we get a strong signal, we’re going to ask you to verify your age.”

Davis said parents can monitor their teens’ accounts and adjust their settings through their own Instagram account.

“The idea is to really make it easier so that they (parents) have their own hub where they can look at what their teen’s privacy settings are,” she said.

Changes fueled by parents and teens

The changes for teens using Instagram come after mounting evidence of the dangers of social media for young users.

Research shows that social media use is linked to symptoms of depression and anxiety, body image issues, and lower life satisfaction for some teens and adolescents. One large study found that heavy social media use around the time adolescents are going through puberty was linked to lower life satisfaction a year later.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who previously issued an advisory highlighting the mental health crisis among young people, has said he believes social media use “does a disservice” to children in their early teens. The American Psychological Association noted the crisis among children and last year published the first-of-its-kind guideline to help teens use social media safely.

In January, during testimony at a Senate hearing, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly apologized to parents, caregivers, and loved ones of young people who they said had been harmed by social media use. He told them, “It’s horrible. No one should have to go through what your families have gone through.”

In his apology, Zuckerberg also highlighted Meta’s efforts on safety, adding, “That’s why we’re investing so much and continuing our industry-leading efforts to make sure no one has to go through what your families did.”

Davis said the recently announced changes to Instagram for teen users came after conversations with parents and teens around the world.

She said the company is focused on making it easier for parents to see how, when and with whom their teens are active on Instagram.

“We’ve made these incremental changes as we’ve worked back and forth with parents and experts,” Davis said of previous safety changes for teen users. “What we’re really trying to do here is standardize a lot of this approach.”

She added of the new features: “There are these broad protections that we have, and if your teenager wants to change them, and they’re under 16, they have to come to you for permission, they have to invite you. It’s just a different way of thinking about things.”

Parents, guardians, and teens can learn more about teen accounts by visiting Instagram.com/teenaccounts.