Following months of global regulatory backlash and two major lawsuits, Meta on Tuesday announced the expansion of safety guardrails for teens on its social media platforms.
Instagram Teen Accounts, an initiative that Meta unveiled in 2024 and updated with new content filters in October 2025, automatically placed teens under 16 in age-appropriate content restrictions loosely and controversially inspired by PG-13 movie ratings. That latest revamp was only available in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, but now, Meta will be expanding it not just globally but also across other apps like Facebook and Messenger.
On Facebook, the Teen Accounts setting will limit what’s shown in Reels and the Feed, and block teens from interacting with any profile, page, or group that posts inappropriate content. On Messenger, teens will be unable to view links to inappropriate Facebook posts or to chat with accounts that post such content.
On top of that, under-16 users will face further restrictions on any posts about nutrition, weightlifting, and anxiety.
“We recognize that some content — like posts about nutrition, weightlifting, or how to cope with anxiety — can be helpful, but it should be balanced with other types of content rather than shown repeatedly,” Meta said in the press release. “That’s why we’re testing ways to limit teens from seeing too many posts of this kind in one go, including in Explore, Feed, and Reels.”
The algorithm is Instagram’s driving engine. The algorithmic recommender system analyzes every click and extra millisecond you spend on a certain post to curate a personalized infinite feed to keep you scrolling for as long as possible. So, say you’re a self-conscious pre-teen, for any Reel about dieting advice that you linger on, the algorithm would serve you tons more. While that technology ensured the growth of Meta’s social media platforms over the past decade or so, it has also pulled the tech giant into serious regulatory and legal quagmires.
For years, numerous healthcare professionals and academics have been sounding the alarm on the impact these social media engagement traps have on users, particularly minors. Those studies have now been turning into actual policy changes, a momentum that really picked up in December 2025 when Australia enacted its landmark social media ban for under-16 users. Since then, other countries like Brazil, Indonesia, and Malaysia have followed suit, while numerous others from Spain to South Korea have also taken steps towards a ban. In April, the European Union released an online age-verification app that could become the blueprint for similar measures worldwide.
That momentum is building somewhat slower in the United States. One reason for that is the Trump administration’s friendly approach to Silicon Valley interests. Until March 2026, another reason was Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protected tech companies from liability for the impact of third-party content posted on their platforms. In March, Meta lost two key social media trials, one in which a New Mexico court found it liable for exposing children to sexual predators on its platforms, and a California lawsuit where deliberate design choices on Instagram were found to get kids addicted to social media from an early age and exacerbate mental health issues like anxiety and body dysmorphia.
The verdicts opened the floodgates to further litigation. Last month, just weeks before trial, Meta settled with a Kentucky school district that claimed Meta’s social media platforms had a burden on the school system by messing up the mental health of school-aged children.
The updates Meta announced on Tuesday are the first major changes to the teen safety guardrails since it lost the two key trials in March. With the regulatory momentum picking up around the world and thousands more social media addiction lawsuits it’s facing in the United States, Meta might still have more room to go with the changes.
