Instagram implements new guidelines for accounts for teenagers as NC lawmakers try to address issue

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — There are new restrictions on Instagram accounts for teenagers. It’s Meta’s — the parent company of both Instagram and Facebook — latest attempt to protect kids from seeing potentially harmful content.

This is also something lawmakers and other leaders here in North Carolina have tried to tackle.

All accounts for teens younger than 18 will be controlled with PG-13 settings, just like movies. This means they’ll only see content like what you would see in a film with that rating.

A local children’s psychiatrist tells us she thinks these new rules are a step in the right direction.

“I love the movement towards creating more safety, more safe spaces for adolescents on social media, and I think it can help parents. I don’t think it’s all that it’s going to take for pediatric mental health or for youth to use Instagram in a healthy way. But I think it’s movement in the right direction,” said Dr. Andrea Diaz Stransky, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and assistant professor at Duke University.

Dr. Diaz Stransky tells CBS 17 parents should also do their part.

“If parents can work with their youth to educate them, to have very open conversations about it, to make sure that they have social media spaces in the house for when youth should be using it and curfews around it, open dialog and education goes a long way,” Dr. Diaz Stranksy said. “Much better than restrictive rules.”

The company says its expanded protections include not allowing teens to follow accounts that post inappropriate content for their age, blocking for searches containing words like “gore” or alcohol,” not allowing teens to click links to content that goes against these updated rules, and making sure AI responses abide by PG-13 guidelines.

Last legislative session, state lawmakers introduced House Bill 301, which would’ve banned social media accounts for children younger than 14 and would’ve required parent or guardian consent for accounts for 14- and 15-year-olds.

The North Carolina Child Fatality task force also met last week. Its members said they want to see more done to protect what children can see or do online.

A Meta spokesperson says today they started to rollout these protections in the United States, which should be completed by the end of the year.