Meta has announced new protections for teenagers in their Instagram app to prevent those users under 16 from using the live-streaming feature without parental approval.

“In addition to the existing built-in protections offered by Teen Accounts, we’re adding new restrictions for Instagram Live and unwanted images in DMs. With these changes, teens under 16 will be prohibited from going Live unless their parents give them permission to do so,” the company said in a press release. The new updates will also require adult permission to disable a feature within the app’s messages, which automatically blurs images containing potential nudity.

In September of 2024, Meta introduced Teen Accounts for Instagram in response to the growing mental health concerns for underage users being habitually exposed to explicit content through the wildly popular photo sharing app. The company said that roughly 54 million teenagers globally had been moved on to Teen Accounts and the latest changes will be rolled out first to users in the U.K., U.S., Canada, and Australia.

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