Instagram parent company Meta (META) on Tuesday announced a series of features for the social network that the company said are designed to protect teen users from interacting with inappropriate accounts and content. Meta said that starting today, it will automatically place teen users under the age of 16 into Instagram Teen Accounts. The feature will restrict who teens can message, who can tag them and what they can see in the app.

User accounts will be put in private mode, meaning teens will have to accept new followers and people who don’t follow them won’t be able to see their content. Teens will only be able to send messages to people they follow or are connected to.

Sensitive content controls prevent teen users from seeing things like fighting or posts promoting cosmetic procedures in their Explore and Reels tabs, while time limit reminders tell teens to leave the app after 60 minutes of use in a day. A sleep mode is also enabled between 10pm and 7am, muting notifications and sending automatic replies to messages.

Teens under 16 must ask their parents to change settings. According to the company, in the future, parents will be able to change app settings without their teens having to ask first.

Meta’s Instagram Teen Accounts comes after 42 state attorneys general issued a letter last week urging Congress to allow Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to place a warning label on social media apps. In the memo, the attorneys general said social media platforms are fueling a “mental health crisis” among young people and that a Surgeon General’s warning on algorithmically-driven social platforms could help address the issue.

“A growing body of research shows that young people’s use of these social media platforms is associated with a variety of serious psychological harms, including depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts,” the attorneys general wrote in their letter to Congressman Mike Johnson and Senators Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell.

“Algorithmically driven social media use also disrupts adolescents’ daily lives by chronically interrupting their sleep with irresistible algorithmic recommendations, endless scrolling, and a constant stream of notifications designed to keep kids tirelessly engaged on the platform.”

The letter follows an op-ed Murthy wrote in The New York Times in June, in which he argued why social media platforms need a warning from the physician general and urged Congress to pass legislation to limit the impact of social media on younger users.

“Congressional legislation should protect young people from online harassment, abuse, and exploitation, and from exposure to the extreme violence and sexual content that all too often appear in algorithm-driven feeds,” he wrote.

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Meta says they are working to ensure that teens can no longer access content outside of Instagram Teen Accounts by requiring them to verify their age if they want to use a new account that is linked to their old account with an adult birthday, so they appear older.

The company also says it’s building technology to identify accounts created by teens who lie about their birthdays to gain access to the full Instagram experience. Meta says the capability will allow it to automatically move offending accounts to Instagram Teen Accounts, even if they use adult birthdays.

However, the company stresses that it will take more than just changes to the app to prevent teens from circumventing app rules. It says it is important for companies and governments to work together to find a solution.

Meta is facing a flood of lawsuits over teens’ use of its social media apps. In 2023, several states filed lawsuits against Meta, alleging that it designed its platforms to be addictive to teens. In February, New York City joined a long list of school districts suing social media companies over what they say are negative effects of their platforms.

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