Instagram Release Notes

Today, we’re starting to test Instagram for TV, which brings reels from your favorite creators to the big screen so you can enjoy them with friends.

We’ve heard from people that watching reels together is more fun, and this test is designed to learn which features make that experience work best on TV.

Reels on Instagram for TV are grouped into channels that match your interests, including new music, sports highlights, hidden travel gems, trending moments, and more.

Today, we’re starting to test Instagram for TV, which brings reels from your favorite creators to the big screen so you can enjoy them with friends. We heard that watching reels together is more enjoyable, and this test will help us learn which features make that experience work best on TV.

Instagram for TV is available now in the US on Amazon Fire TV devices, and we’ll expand the app to more countries and devices in the future.

How to Get Started

First, install the Instagram app on your Amazon Fire TV and sign in to your account. You can also set up Instagram for TV through the Settings and activity menu in the mobile app. You can add up to five accounts on Instagram for TV, so everyone in your home can enjoy a personalized way to watch reels. You can also create a separate Instagram for TV account that isn’t linked to your profile in a few simple steps.

Explore Reels in Channels

When you log in, reels will be grouped into channels that match your interests, including new music, sports highlights, hidden travel gems, trending moments, and more. Once you select a reel, you can kick back and relax as more reels play automatically with full sound without having to scroll for what’s next.

Over time, we plan to introduce new features to the app, like using your phone as a remote to browse, different ways to channel surf, shared feeds with friends, and making it easier to keep up with your favorite creators in one place.

Applying Safety and Content Standards

Instagram for TV is built for shared viewing, so we apply content standards suitable for a broad audience. In this test, Reels generally follow the PG-13 rating system we recently introduced on the mobile app, so you’ll see content similar to what you might see in a PG-13 movie.

For teens, Instagram for TV is intended to reflect the same general safeguards that are available on the Instagram mobile app. This includes limiting access to content, comments, and profiles that may be unsuitable for people under the age of 18. Time spent on Instagram for TV contributes to a Teen Account’s usage limit alongside their mobile app usage, and teens may receive the same reminders about approaching or reaching those limits or Sleep mode.

We’re learning and planning to improve Instagram for TV based on your feedback. Download the app on an Amazon Fire TV device today.

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Update on December 19, 2025 at 4:50PM PT

This article, including the headline, has been updated to clarify that our updates to Teen Accounts were inspired by movie ratings for ages 13+. There are lots of differences between social media and movies. We didn’t work with the MPA when updating our content settings, and they’re not rating content on Instagram. Rather, we drew inspiration from the MPA's public guidelines, which are already familiar to parents.

Takeaways

• Instagram is revamping Teen Accounts, inspired by movie ratings for ages 13+. This means teens will see content that’s similar to what they’d see in an age-appropriate movie, by default.
• Parents who prefer extra controls can also choose a new, stricter setting.
• We’re also offering parents new ways to share feedback, including the ability to report content they think teens shouldn’t see.

Today, we’re announcing that Instagram Teen Accounts will be inspired by movie ratings for ages 13+ by default. This means that teens will see content on Instagram that’s similar to what they’d see in an age-appropriate movie. Teens under 18 will be automatically placed into an updated 13+ setting, and they won’t be able to opt out without a parent’s permission. And because we know that all families are different, we’re also introducing a new, stricter setting for parents who prefer a more restrictive experience for their teen. We invited thousands of parents worldwide to share their feedback with us, helping us shape these changes and ensure our efforts align with their expectations.

This is the most significant update to Teen Accounts since we introduced them last year, and builds on the automatic protections already provided by Teen Accounts to hundreds of millions of teens globally. We know teens may try to avoid these restrictions, which is why we’ll use age prediction technology to place teens into certain content protections — even if they claim to be adults.

Just like you might see some suggestive content or hear some strong language in a movie rated for ages 13+, teens may occasionally see something like that on Instagram — but we’re going to keep doing all we can to keep those instances as rare as possible. We recognize no system is perfect, and we’re committed to improving over time. We hope this update reassures parents that we’re working to show teens safe, age-appropriate content on Instagram by default, while also giving them more ways to shape their teen’s experience.

Updating Our Content Policies for Teens, Inspired by Movie Ratings for Ages 13+

Teen Accounts were already designed to protect teens from inappropriate content and, over the past year, we’ve further refined our age-appropriate guidelines to hide even more potentially inappropriate content in the updated default 13+ content setting.

We decided to more closely align our policies with an independent standard that parents are familiar with, so we reviewed our age-appropriate guidelines against movie ratings for ages 13+ and updated them accordingly. While of course there are differences between movies and social media, we made these changes so teens’ experiences in the 13+ setting feel closer to the Instagram equivalent of watching a movie that’s been rated appropriate for 13+.

In addition to our longstanding policies — which already hide or prohibit the recommendation of sexually suggestive content, graphic or disturbing images, and adult content like tobacco or alcohol sales from teens — our updated policies will now go even further. This includes hiding or not recommending posts with strong language, certain risky stunts, and additional content that could encourage potentially harmful behaviors, such as posts showing marijuana paraphernalia.

In a recent survey conducted by Ipsos and commissioned by Meta, 95% of US parents of teens said they think these updated settings will be helpful, and 90% said they’ll make it easier to understand the kind of content their teen is likely to see on Instagram.

Expanding Protections Across Teen Accounts

We spent several months improving and refining our technology to proactively identify content that goes against our updated guidelines, and we’re using this improved technology across Instagram, including:

• Accounts: Teens will no longer be able to follow accounts that we’ve found regularly share age-inappropriate content, or if their name or bio suggests the account is inappropriate for teens. If teens already follow these accounts, they’ll no longer be able to see or interact with their content, send them DMs, or see their comments under anyone’s posts. We won’t recommend these accounts to teens, and we’ll make it harder for teens to find these accounts in Search. These protections work both ways: these accounts won’t be able to follow teens, send them DMs, or comment on their posts.
• Search: We already block search terms related to certain sensitive topics, like suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders. Now we’ll block teens’ ability to see content results for a wider range of mature search terms, such as ‘alcohol’ or ‘gore’— and we’re working to make sure these terms will still be blocked if they’re misspelled.
• Content Experience: Teens shouldn’t see content that goes against our updated guidelines in recommendations (Explore, Reels, and in-Feed), Feed, and Stories — even when shared by someone they follow — or comments. If someone sends a teen a link to such content in DMs, they won’t be able to open it.
• AI: We’ve also updated our AI experiences for teens, inspired by movie ratings for ages 13+, meaning AIs should not give age-inappropriate responses that would feel out of place in a movie rated for ages 13+.

Introducing Limited Content: A New, Stricter Setting for Parents Who Prefer Extra Controls

Every family is different and, for some parents, movies rated for ages 13+ may still feel too mature for their teen. That’s why we’re introducing a new, stricter setting called ‘Limited Content,’ which will filter even more content from the Teen Account experience. It will also remove teens’ ability to see, leave, or receive comments under posts. Starting next year, this setting will also further restrict the AI conversations teens can have.

The new Limited Content setting is designed to give parents more control over what their teen sees on Instagram. 96% of US parents said they appreciated having this option, whether they choose to opt their teen in or not.

Listening and Responding to Parents

We took parent feedback into account as we developed these changes, and we’re giving parents ways to continue providing us with feedback so we can make improvements. We invited thousands of parents around the world to rate real Instagram content and tell us if they thought it was appropriate for teens. We received over 3 million content ratings from parents and incorporated this feedback when refining our age-appropriate guidelines.

We’re encouraged to see that this feedback, and the changes we made in response to it, made parents more comfortable with content recommended to teens. For example, in September, we asked parents in the US and UK to review Instagram content that had been recommended to teens. Fewer than 2% of the posts were considered inappropriate for teens by most parents.

So parents can continue to give us feedback, we’ll run regular surveys on Instagram inviting parents to review a series of posts, and confirm whether they think they’re appropriate for teens. These surveys will help us understand if parents still agree with where we’ve drawn the line, and if we need to further adjust our guidelines.

We’re also testing a new way for parents using supervision tools to flag any post they see on Instagram that they think should be hidden from teens and tell us why. If these posts aren’t already hidden from teens, we’ll send them to our teams for prioritized review, and we’ll let the parent know the outcome.

When to Expect These Changes

These are significant updates, and we want to take the time to get it right. The updated content settings will start rolling out gradually to Teen Accounts in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada today and will be fully rolled out by the end of the year. Looking ahead, we plan to roll out these changes globally, apply more of the new protections to teens who claim to be adults, and on Facebook, add additional age-appropriate content protections for teens.

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Takeaways

• We’ve placed hundreds of millions of teens in Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, and now we’re expanding them to teens around the world on Facebook and Messenger.
• We’re launching the School Partnership Program to help educators report safety concerns, like bullying, directly to us for quicker review and removal.
• We’re also expanding access to our online safety curriculum to teach middle schoolers how to stay safe online, including how to recognize and avoid scams and other types of exploitation.

A year ago, we introduced Teen Accounts — a significant step to help keep teens safe across our apps. As of today, we’ve placed hundreds of millions of teens in Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. Teen Accounts are already rolled out globally on Instagram and are further expanding to teens everywhere around the world on Facebook and Messenger today. Teen Account protections were designed to address parents’ top concerns with automatic protections to limit who their teens are talking to online and the content they’re seeing, and ensure their time is well spent. While there’s always more work to be done, we’re encouraged to see that Teen Accounts are bringing parents more peace of mind when it comes to their teens’ online experiences.

“We want parents to feel good about their teens using social media. We know teens use apps like Instagram to connect with friends and explore their interests, and they should be able to do so without worrying about unsafe or inappropriate experiences. Teen Accounts are designed to give parents peace of mind. Since launching on Instagram a year ago, we’ve added limits on teens going Live, more restrictions in DMs, and also improved our ability to make sure people are in age-appropriate experiences. Supporting parents and helping teens use our apps safely is a responsibility we take seriously.” – Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram

More Support for Schools and Teachers, in Addition to Parents

While we’re focused on providing young people with built-in protections and giving parents ways to directly manage their teens’ experiences, we recognize there are many who play a role in keeping teens safe — including teachers and schools. Today, we’re launching the School Partnership Program for all US middle and high schools. Developed with the International Society for Technology in Education and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, this program helps educators report safety concerns, like bullying, directly to us for quicker review. This means schools can report Instagram content or accounts that may violate our Community Standards for prioritized review, which we aim to complete within 48 hours.

We piloted this program over the past year and opened up a waitlist for schools to join in April. The program has helped us quickly respond to educators’ online safety concerns, and we’ve heard positive feedback from participating schools. Now, all middle and high schools in the US can sign up for the School Partnership Program by visiting about.instagram.com/community/educators or directly in their Instagram settings by selecting Account Type and Tools or Business Tools and Controls. Full step by step instructions can be found here.

Schools that sign up to become school partners on Instagram receive prioritized reporting, educational resources to help their school community navigate social media, and a banner on their Instagram profile so parents and students know they’re an official Instagram partner.

“Partnering with Instagram has been incredibly helpful in keeping our students and community safer online. I had an inside track and faster responses to reports of inappropriate behaviors online. As a principal of four years, responsible for over 700 students, I cannot stress enough the importance of new ways to keep kids safe in this changing world. I’m excited that more schools will get the chance to do this. I hope other technology platforms can also trust schools more and take down harmful posts.” – Justin Ponzio, Principal, Buchser Middle School

Reaching a Million Middle Schoolers With Online Safety Curriculum

Earlier this year, we announced that we partnered with Childhelp to develop a first-of-its-kind online safety curriculum specifically for middle schoolers. Educators and parents who have accessed the curriculum so far say they expect to teach it to over 550,000 US middle schoolers in the coming year, and our goal is to reach one million students.

The curriculum, created in collaboration with leading child safety experts, teaches middle schoolers how to stay safe online, including how to spot potential signs of online exploitation, and what to do if they or someone they know needs help. Fully funded by Meta, the curriculum is free and available to all, and includes everything parents and educators need — from detailed facilitator training to fully scripted lessons, with interactive activities and videos.

We also know that sometimes middle schoolers prefer to discuss these topics with people closer in age. That’s why we partnered with the team at LifeSmarts, who have adapted the curriculum to empower high school students to teach it to their younger peers. This new peer-led version of the curriculum is available now.

As part of our commitment to supporting parents and protecting teens, we’re always working on new ways to keep teens safe on our apps, and we’ll share more updates soon.

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Instagram on iPad

Today, we’re excited to announce we’re bringing Instagram to iPad. People have asked for this for a while, and we’ve taken the time to design an experience that optimizes your favorite parts of Instagram for a bigger screen.

Sit back, relax, and watch Reels

Instagram has always been the place where people connect over creativity, and Reels has become a primary way people discover and share entertaining content. With Instagram for iPad, we’ve redesigned the experience to reflect how people use bigger screens today – for lean back entertainment. Now, when you open the app, you’ll drop into Reels, so you can get the entertaining content you love on a bigger screen. You’ll also see Stories at the top, so you can easily connect with the people that matter to you, and messaging is one tap away.

Catch up with the new Following tab

We’ve heard your requests for easier ways to make sure you’re not missing updates from your favorite accounts, so we’re introducing a new “Following” tab on iPad, which gives you multiple ways to see the latest and greatest from the accounts you follow:

• All: Recommended posts and reels from accounts you follow
• Friends: Recommended post and reels from accounts you follow, that follow you back
• Latest: Chronological posts and reels from accounts you follow, with the most recent posts appearing first.

You can choose the order of these feeds to prioritize what you want to see first.

Designed for the big screen

When designing Instagram for iPad, we wanted to take advantage of the bigger screen to give people more features with fewer taps, while keeping it simple. We’ve made it easier to catch up on your messages and notifications with layouts that display both tabs. When you watch reels, you can expand the comments while the reel stays at full size, making it easy to catch up on the best reactions without missing a moment. It’s the Instagram you love, now with more space to play.

Instagram for iPad is now rolling out globally on iPad models that support iPadOS 15.1 and later. It is free for download on the App Store. The new tablet design will be coming soon to Android.

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Takeaways

With the new Instagram schools experience, students can connect with friends and the classmates they know from college or university in a dedicated, private space that’s only for students.
Students can add their school to their profile as a banner, and connect with other confirmed students via a school directory.

Today, we’re launching a new student-only space to help college students connect with fellow classmates on Instagram. College or university students in the U.S. can now add their school to their profile as a banner, and connect with other confirmed students via the school directory.

Add your school

Students will see the ability to “Add school” on their profile. Once someone is confirmed to be a current student by completing a verification process, including providing information to student verification platform UNiDAYS, they will be able to display their school as a banner on their profile. Students can choose who can see their banner.

Once confirmed, students will be able to browse a directory of other confirmed students, helping students connect with classmates at a time in their lives where connecting with their new school-based community can be beneficial.

Connect with fellow classmates

Instagram is a go-to space to connect with friends. Now the directory makes it easier to find fellow classmates and make connections. Using the directory, confirmed students can browse other confirmed students within the entire school or filter by year. We are partnering with student verification platform UNiDAYS to verify a student is an active student at their indicated school.

At UNiDAYS, we're committed to creating safer, more rewarding digital experiences for the next generation. We do this by making verification and digital identity a foundation, not a barrier for young people. We're proud to partner with Instagram to champion digital trust and online safety. This new feature, underpinned by our world-leading verification technology, enables students to build more authentic, meaningful, and secure connections online.

We want Instagram to be a place where people can connect safely with their friends. With the new schools experience on Instagram, college students can better connect with fellow classmates, explore their interests, and build community at school.

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Takeaways

• We’re introducing reposts, a way for you to share your favorite public reels and posts, and see the content your friends are enjoying.
• You can now choose to responsibly share your location with friends you pick using the Instagram map.
• There’s a new “Friends” tab in Reels where you can see the content your friends have liked, created, reposted or commented on, and easily start conversations about them.

Today, we’re launching several new ways to help you better connect with your friends on Instagram. People have always come to Instagram to share what they’re up to and where they are. Now, with reposts, the map, and the “Friends” tab in Reels, it’s easier for you and your friends to stay in touch through the content you’re enjoying on Instagram.

Repost Your Favorite Reels and Posts

With reposts, you can repost public reels and feed posts, making it easier for you to share your interests with your friends. Reposts will be recommended to your friends’ and followers’ feeds, and they’ll also be in a separate tab on your profile, so you can always go back to revisit your reposts.

Reposts are credited to the original poster. If you’re a creator, this means that if your content is reposted by someone else, it may be recommended to that person’s followers, even if those people don’t follow you. This gives creators an opportunity to reach even more people.

To repost a reel or post, tap the repost icon. You can also add a note to your repost by typing into the thought bubble that appears on screen and pressing save.

Connect with Friends Using the Instagram Map

Stay up-to-date with friends with the Instagram map. You can opt in to sharing your last active location with friends you choose, and you can turn it off anytime. You can also open the map to see content your friends and favorite creators are posting from interesting or fun locations.

No matter how you use the map, you and your friends have a new, lightweight way to connect with each other.

Location sharing is off unless you opt in. If you do share your location with friends, you have controls to customize this experience:

• You choose who you share your location with: friends (followers you follow back), Close Friends, Only selected friends, or no one.
• You can choose to not share location in specific places or with specific people.
• If you use location sharing, your location is updated whenever you open the app or return to the app if it’s been running in the background. You can turn off location sharing at any time.
• If you’re a parent with supervision set up for your teen, you have control over their location sharing experience on the map. You will receive a notification if your teen starts sharing their location, giving you the opportunity to have important conversations about how to safely share with friends.

You can decide whether your teen has access to location sharing on the map and see who your teen is sharing their location with.

You can find the Instagram map at the top of your DM inbox. This feature is rolling out to the US today, with more global availability soon.

Find Out What Your Friends Are Enjoying

We’re introducing Friends, a new tab in Reels where you can see public content your friends have interacted with, or recommendations from Blends you’ve started, and easily start conversations about them.

Friends will help you see which reels the people you care about most are creating and engaging with.

We started rolling Friends out earlier this year, and are now excited to launch it globally.

To access your Friends tab, tap the “Friends” tab at the top of Reels. To return to your usual Reels feed, tap the “Reels” tab.

We’re also rolling out controls for what’s shown in the Friends tab, including the ability to hide your own likes and comments on reels, and to mute activity bubbles from specific people you follow.

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Takeaways

You can now repost your favorite public reels and posts, and see the content your friends are enjoying.
You can choose to responsibly share your location with friends you pick using the Instagram map.
There’s a new “Friends” tab in Reels where you can see the content your friends have liked, created, reposted or commented on, and easily start conversations about them.

Today, we’re launching several new ways to help you better connect with your friends on Instagram. People have always come to Instagram to share what they’re up to and where they are. Now, with reposts, the map, and the “Friends” tab in Reels, it’s easier for you and your friends to stay in touch through the content you’re enjoying on Instagram.

Repost Your Favorite Reels and Posts

With reposts, you can repost public reels and feed posts, making it easier for you to share your interests with your friends. Reposts will be recommended to your friends’ and followers’ feeds, and they’ll also be in a separate tab on your profile, so you can always go back to revisit your reposts.

Reposts are credited to the original poster. If you’re a creator, this means that if your content is reposted by someone else, it may be recommended to that person’s followers, even if those people don’t follow you. This gives creators a new opportunity to reach more people whenever you create something worth sharing.

To repost a reel or post, tap the repost icon. You can also add a note to your repost by typing into the thought bubble that appears on screen and pressing save.

Connect with Friends with the Instagram Map

Stay up-to-date with friends with the Instagram map. You can opt into sharing your last active location with friends you pick, and you can turn it off anytime. You can also open the map to see content your friends and favorite creators are posting from cool spots. No matter how you use the map, you and your friends have a new, lightweight way to connect with each other.

Location sharing is off unless you opt in. If you do share location with friends, you have controls to customize this experience:

• You choose who you share your location with: friends (followers you follow back), Close Friends, Only selected friends, or no one.
• You can choose to not share location in specific places or with specific people.
• If you use location sharing, your location is updated whenever you open the app or return to the app if it’s been running in the background. You can turn off location sharing at any time.
• If you’re a parent with supervision set up for your teen, you have control over their location sharing experience on the map. You will receive a notification if your teen starts sharing their location, giving you the opportunity to have important conversations about how to safely share with friends. You can decide whether your teen has access to location sharing on the map and see who your teen is sharing their location with.
• Learn more about sharing location.

Regardless of whether or not you choose to share your location, you can use the map to explore location-based content. From checking out stories from friends who’ve gone to a concert or finding a new place to hangout from a local creator’s reel, there’s content to help you and your friends connect with the world around you.

Any content with a location tagged can show up on the map including:

• Reels, posts, and stories from people you follow, available for 24 hours after it’s posted
• Notes from people you mutually follow, available for 24 hours

You can find the Instagram map at the top of your DM inbox. This feature is rolling out to the US today, with more global availability soon.

Find Out What Your Friends Are Enjoying

We’re introducing Friends, a new tab in Reels where you can see public content your friends have interacted with or recommendations from Blends you’ve started and easily start conversations about them. Friends will help you see which reels the people you care about most are creating and are engaging with. We started rolling Friends out earlier this year, and are now excited to launch globally.

To access your Friends tab, tap the “Friends” tab at the top of Reels. To return to your usual Reels feed, tap the “Reels” tab. We’re also rolling out controls for what’s shown in the Friends tab, including controls for hiding your own likes and comments on reels, and muting activity bubbles from specific people you follow.

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Protecting Teens from Potentially Unsafe or Unwanted Contact

At Meta, we work to protect young people from both direct and indirect harm. Our efforts range from Teen Accounts, which are designed to give teens age-appropriate experiences and prevent unwanted contact, to our sophisticated technology that finds and removes exploitative content.

Today, we’re announcing a range of updates to bolster these efforts, and we’re sharing new data on the impact of our latest safety tools.

We’ve added new safety features to DMs in Teen Accounts to give teens more context about the accounts they’re messaging and help them spot potential scammers. Now, teens will see new options to view safety tips and block an account, as well as the month and year the account joined Instagram, all prominently displayed at the top of new chats.

We’ve also launched a new block and report option in DMs, so that people can take both actions together. While we’ve always encouraged people to both block and report, this new combined option will make this process easier, and help make sure potentially violating accounts are reported to us, so we can review and take action.

These new features complement the Safety Notices we show to remind people to be cautious in private messages and to block and report anything that makes them uncomfortable – and we’re encouraged to see teens responding to them. In June alone, they blocked accounts 1 million times and reported another 1 million after seeing a Safety Notice.

In June, teens and young adults also saw our new Location Notice on Instagram 1 million times, with 1 in 10 tapping on the notice to learn more about the steps they could take. Our Location Notice lets people know when they’re chatting with someone who may be in a different country, and is designed to help protect people from potential sextortion scammers who often misrepresent where they live.

Since rolling out our nudity protection feature globally, 99% of people – including teens – have kept it turned on, and in June, over 40% of blurred images received in DMs stayed blurred, significantly reducing exposure to unwanted nudity. Nudity protection, on by default for teens, also encourages people to think twice before forwarding suspected nude images, and in May people decided against forwarding around 45% of the time after seeing this warning.

Bringing Some Teen Account Protections to Adult-Managed Accounts Primarily Featuring Children

We’re also strengthening our protections for accounts run by adults that primarily feature children. These include adults who regularly share photos and videos of their children, and adults – such as parents or talent managers – who run accounts that represent teens or children under 13.

While you have to be at least 13 to use Instagram, we allow adults to run accounts representing children under 13 if it’s clear in the account bio that they manage the account. If we become aware that the account is being run by the child themselves, we’ll remove it.

While these accounts are overwhelmingly used in benign ways, unfortunately there are people who may try to abuse them, leaving sexualized comments under their posts or asking for sexual images in DMs, in clear violation of our rules. Today we’re announcing steps to help prevent this abuse.

We’re extending some Teen Account protections to adult-managed accounts that primarily feature children. These include automatically placing these accounts into our strictest message settings to prevent unwanted messages, and turning on Hidden Words, which filters offensive comments. We’ll show these accounts a notification at the top of their Instagram Feed, letting them know we’ve updated their safety settings, and prompting them to review their account privacy settings too. These changes will roll out in the coming months.

We also want to prevent potentially suspicious adults, for example adults who have been blocked by teens, from finding these accounts in the first place. We’ll avoid recommending them to potentially suspicious adults and vice versa, make it harder for them to find each other in Search and hide comments from potentially suspicious adults on their posts. This builds on last year’s update to stop allowing accounts primarily featuring children to offer subscriptions or receive gifts.

Taking Action on Harmful Accounts Across the Internet

In addition to these new protections, we’re also continuing to take aggressive action on accounts that break our rules. Earlier this year, our specialist teams removed nearly 135,000 Instagram accounts for leaving sexualized comments or requesting sexual images from adult-managed accounts featuring children under 13. We also removed an additional 500,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts that were linked to those original accounts.

We let people know that we’d removed an account that had interacted inappropriately with their content, encouraging them to be cautious and to block and report.

People who seek to exploit children don’t limit themselves to any one platform, which is why we also shared information about these accounts with other tech companies through the Tech Coalition’s Lantern program.

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Celebrating the Creative Chances That Fuel our Mission

One of the best parts of my job is getting to hear from creators and people around the world who use Instagram every day. As much time as I’ve spent working on this app, I’m still constantly learning from the stories I hear. One theme that often comes up is the excitement and nervousness that come with putting something out into the world. People talk about taking risks, leaps of faith and overcoming whatever self-doubt they have, all to share an idea or something they made with the world.

I want Instagram to be a place where people come together over creativity. To do so, we need to evolve as creativity evolves.

I want Instagram to be a place where you can overcome self-doubt, and just make it, share it, do it anyway.

That’s why we’re investing in creativity more this year than ever before, just as Instagram turns 15.

From launching Edits for video creatives, to introducing new work with some of the most creative people on the planet, to new creator programs and features like Trials, we want to make it easier for anyone to take a creative chance.

Beginning today, you’ll see creative journeys from people like Tyler, The Creator, Rosalía, Fred Again.., Nadia Lee Cohen, Cole Bennett, Clint 419, and Slawn in a series of films and experiences about the power of a creative chance.

These powerful voices embody our mission and remind us that everyone starts somewhere.

We’re inspired by their stories and humbled by the small role Instagram has played in them.

We’ll be doing much more with these creatives in the year ahead as we move our mission forward.

Building Products to Reduce Pressure and Supercharge Creativity

We know creative expression can feel intimidating, especially when posting something to feed.

To address this directly, we’re exploring a way to let you quietly post to your profile without broadcasting it to everyone’s feeds.

We’ll also make it possible to re-order the posts on your grid.

We hope this added flexibility over how and where your content shows up helps you create and share without added pressure.

We’ve also made trial reels available to everyone, which lets you share a reel with non-followers at first.

We’ve heard from creators that this takes the guesswork out of how content will perform, and our hope is that trial reels will give everyone greater freedom to explore their creativity in a low-pressure way.

Not only are creators feeling freedom to post reels more often after, but they’re seeing results – after trying trial reels, 40% of creators started posting reels more often and of those who did, 80% saw an increase in reels reach from non-followers.*

We’re continuing to invest heavily in making Edits the best app for making great videos on your phone, no matter where you share them.

You’ll see new app-defining features based on creator feedback, including the recently launched restyle editing tool, which lets you quickly change the look and feel of your videos with AI.

We know people value lightweight ways to be creative with features like Close Friends, Stories, Notes and more.

So we’re partnering with Rosalía on a new font in Stories and Reels, inspired by her handwriting, to make things more fun.

We’re also introducing a way to share what you’re listening to on Spotify directly in Notes, to easily connect with friends through music.

Investing in Emerging Creators and Artists

Today, we’re launching Drafts, a new initiative that will invest in emerging talent and support creators and artists at critical moments in their journey.

We’ll partner with the next-generation of creative voices, like Tyrell Hampton, Young Emperors, Sailorr and Jake Fleming, to provide them with the financial support, connections, co-ideation and collaboration opportunities needed to bring their creative projects to life.

We’re working to make Instagram a place where creators feel free to take more creative chances, break through whatever barrier holds them back and realize their ambitions.

Because your next creative chance – big or small – could be the one that changes it all.

The willingness of people like you to make something and share it with the world is what makes Instagram work.

There is so much creativity on the platform, and we’re committed to doing more to support people taking creative chances.

• Note: This is based on an internal analysis of over 400,000 creators actively producing reels before and after trying trial reels. It examined the percentage of creators who experienced an increase in reels production and unconnected reach one month after they first used trial reels to the month before adoption, and controls for confounding factors.

This is designed to highlight possible performance, but performance is not guaranteed.

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Working With Parents and New Technology to Enroll More Teens Into Teen Accounts

April 21, 2025

Takeaways

• As we continue to expand Teen Accounts, we want to make sure as many teens as possible are enrolled.
• We’re notifying parents on Instagram with information about the importance of their teens providing the correct ages online, and tips to check and confirm their teens’ ages together.
• Parents don’t have to go it alone – we’re using AI to help place suspected teens into Teen Accounts settings.

Update on September 21, 2025 at 9:00PM PT:

In April, we announced that we were beginning to use AI technology in the US to find suspected teens on our platforms and proactively place them in Teen Account settings. We’ve been encouraged by the response we’ve seen since that announcement. For example, we’ve seen many in our industry announce their own efforts to estimate the age of their users and place them in age-appropriate settings. We’re also encouraged that over 9 out of every 10 active teen accounts on Instagram remain in protections built to reduce unwanted content. Based on the success of these updates in the US, we will expand testing to the UK, Canada, and Australia, starting today.

People in these countries that we suspect to be under 18, even if they list an adult birthday, will be placed in Teen Account settings, with built-in protections around who can contact them and the content that they see. We’re taking steps to ensure our technology is accurate and that we are correctly placing teens we identify into protective, age-appropriate settings, but in case we make a mistake, we’re giving people the option to change their settings. These settings also include additional built-in protections we recently announced that prevent teens from going Live or turning off the protection that hides unwanted images in DMs.

We also know that parents want to play a more active role in their teens’ online experiences. So we are expanding our parents’ call to action. Parents in the UK, Canada, and Australia will receive notifications on Instagram with information on how to have conversations with their teens about the importance of listing the correct birthday on social media to ensure they have safe, age-appropriate experiences online.

Originally published on April 21, 2025 at 3:00AM PT:

We launched Instagram Teen Accounts last year to better support parents, and give them peace of mind that their teens have the right protections in place. This reimagined experience has built-in protections that limit who can contact teens, the content they see and the time they spend online. Teens are automatically placed in these protective settings, and teens under 16 need parental or guardian approval to make changes. Now, we’re announcing additional steps we’re taking to ensure as many teens as possible benefit from these new protections.

Parents are busy and don’t always have the time to review these settings. That’s why we’re continuing to take additional steps to ensure as many teens as possible are in Teen Account settings. Today, we’re beginning to test AI technology in the US that is designed to proactively find accounts we suspect belong to teens, even if the account lists an adult birthday, and place them in Teen Account settings.

We’ve been using artificial intelligence to help determine age ranges for some time, but leveraging it in this way is a big change. We’re taking steps to ensure our technology is accurate and that we are correctly placing teens we identify into protective, age-appropriate settings, but in case we make a mistake, we’re giving people the option to change their settings. You can learn about the work we are doing to ensure teens do not misrepresent their age here.

Understanding the age of people online is an industry-wide challenge. We’ll continue our efforts to help ensure teens are placed in age-appropriate online experiences, like Teen Accounts, but the most effective way to understand age is by obtaining parental approval and verifying age on the app store.

Categories : Instagram, Meta, Product News, Public Policy, Safety and Expression
Tags: Youth Well-Being Resources

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