Instagram has announced the roll out of new 'teen accounts' which the platform said will include built-in protections for younger users.
Teenagers will be placed into teenager accounts within the next 60 days in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
While teenagers in Ireland and the rest of the EU will be placed into ‘teen accounts’ later this year.
Users under 16 will need a parent’s permission to change any of the built-in protections.
The new accounts will limit who can contact teenagers and the content they see.
The changes come amid growing criticisms of social media firms for not doing enough to protect younger users from harmful content.
The companies have been accused of using algorithms that promote inappropriate posts and of being too slow to remove upsetting material.
Instagram said that its new ‘teen accounts’ will have private settings automatically turned on which means people who do not follow a teenage user will not be able to see their content or interact with them.
Teenagers will be placed in the strictest messaging settings, so they can only be messaged by people they follow or are already connected to.
The accounts will also have sensitive content restrictions, limited interactions, time limit reminders and sleep mode settings.
In a bid to combat the issue of teenagers lying about their age, Instagram said it is requiring users to verify their age in more places, like if they attempt to use a new account with an adult birthday.
"We’re also building technology to proactively find accounts belonging to teens, even if the account lists an adult birthday," Instagram said.
"This technology will allow us to proactively find these teens and place them in the same protections offered by Teen Account settings."
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Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, said it will be bringing ‘teen accounts’ to other Meta platforms next year.
"We know parents want to feel confident that their teens can use social media to connect with their friends and explore their interests, without having to worry about unsafe or inappropriate experiences," the company said.
Online safety charity CyberSafeKids welcomed the roll out of the new accounts but questioned the effectiveness of the new age verification measures.
"I have questions about how this is going to work in practice," said CEO, Alex Cooney.
"I note that they are investing more in age verification technology. I'll be interested to see how that works out and how accurate it is in determining age."
"I also think we will need time to see how effective this is," Ms Cooney said.
