Meta has expanded its 13+ content settings for teen accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Messenger worldwide, extending safeguards first introduced on Instagram in four countries.

The default setting is designed to show teenagers age-appropriate content and reduce exposure to material deemed unsuitable for their age group. On Facebook, it hides inappropriate content in areas such as Feed and Reels, and limits teens’ interactions with profiles, pages, groups and events that mainly post such material.

On Messenger, the setting restricts teenagers from viewing links to inappropriate Facebook content and from chatting with accounts that mainly share inappropriate material on Facebook. A stricter option, called Limited Content, will also be introduced on Facebook and Messenger later.

Separately, Meta is testing an additional measure on Instagram to stop teenagers from repeatedly seeing clusters of posts on certain sensitive themes, including nutrition, weightlifting and ways to cope with anxiety.

Meta said it wants that material, which can be helpful in some cases, to appear in a more balanced way rather than dominate a teen’s Explore, Feed or Reels recommendations in a single session. The test is part of a broader effort to shape what younger users see by default.

Parent feedback

Nine out of 10 teenagers kept the 13+ content setting after it launched on Instagram in the US, UK, Australia and Canada, according to Meta. The company also asked parents around the world to assess content on Facebook and Instagram for suitability for teenagers.

Meta said hundreds of thousands of parents rated more than 15 million pieces of content. In its latest survey of parents in the US, UK, Australia and Canada, fewer than 2% of posts recommended to teenagers on Facebook were considered inappropriate for teens by most parents, it said.

Meta also commissioned Alice, formerly known as ActiveFence, to conduct what it described as adversarial stress-testing of the teen account settings. The external review compared mature themes on Instagram with those on a leading competitor and with films rated 13+.

According to Meta, the assessment found that Instagram teen accounts using the default 13+ setting saw 68% less mature content than the competitor’s teen experience. Under the stricter Limited Content setting, teens saw 96% less mature content than on the rival service.

Meta said the review also concluded that when mature content did appear on Instagram teen accounts, it was less intense than comparable material on the competitor platform and in 13+ rated films. It added that Instagram blocked mature search terms more often than the rival service.

Areas for improvement

The external review identified two gaps that Meta said it has addressed. One involved a small number of accounts sharing age-inappropriate content that were not fully captured by the company’s existing detection systems.

Meta said it updated its signals to improve detection after identifying the issue, citing the review’s findings on the outcome.

“these improvement measures were subsequently retested and found to be effective prior to publication.”

The second issue centred on “car surfing”, which Meta said had emerged as a new online trend. The behavior had not yet been explicitly covered in the same way as “subway surfing”, which was already restricted for teens, so the company updated its policies to limit that content for younger users.

The teen settings are based in part on public movie-rating guidance and parent feedback, although Meta said its moderation systems are not the same as a film ratings board. It said the benchmark was used as a familiar reference point for parents rather than as a direct equivalent.

The latest changes show how large social media groups are refining age-based controls as scrutiny of child safety online remains intense. They also underline Meta’s effort to rely on default settings, independent testing and parent input as it adjusts what teenagers can see and who they can interact with across its apps.

In the rare instances where Alice’s researchers encountered mature content on Instagram, Meta said it mostly involved “risky stunts” or “viral challenges.”