One of the world’s most popular social media platforms is updating safeguards aimed at shielding teenagers from abuse and explicit content. Instagram’s parent company Meta, which also owns Facebook, announced last week that it will be implementing a new “PG-13” guideline for teenagers’ Instagram accounts, dictating what kind of content teens can access and who can communicate with teens on the platform.

Last year, Meta introduced “Teen Accounts” on Instagram, described as “a new experience for teens, guided by parents. Teen Accounts have built-in protections which limit who can contact them and the content they see, and also provide new ways for teens to explore their interests.” All teens 15 and under would automatically have the safeguards applied, while teens 16 and 17 would need a parent’s permission to adjust content and communication settings. The program placed teen users in the most restrictive content settings available, ensured that they could only message or share pictures with users who they approve, provided them with daily reminders not to spend more than an hour a day on the app, and automatically silence notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Last week’s update revises those guidelines, automatically placing teens in a “PG-13” content setting, which parents can make more restrictive should they choose to. “Just like you might see some suggestive content or hear some strong language in a PG-13 movie, 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,” Meta wrote in a press release. “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.”

The ”PG-13” determinations will be made by artificial intelligence (A.I.) programs that scan content posted via the app and compare them to the content found in movies rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The update will also block teens from seeing content posted by accounts flagged as repeat offenders, block searches for harmful or explicit content (even “if they’re misspelled”), and block teens from opening links to websites flagged as containing harmful or explicit content.

In comments to The Washington Stand, Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, shared, “While it is encouraging that Instagram/Meta is taking a step towards improving the mental health of teens who have social media accounts, it seems pretty unlikely that the social media titan can guarantee a teenager will only see content similar to what they’d see in a PG-13 movie.” She explained, “Social media content is updated on a minute-by-minute, sometimes second-by-second, basis. The only way for parents to ensure that their child is not bullied, exposed to sexual material or extreme violence, or isolated from real friends, is to remove our children from social media all together.”

“A child’s brain is not fully developed, making it more likely that exposure to social media at a young age leads to social media addiction and a major increase in the level of influence social media has on that child’s decisions,” Szoch observed. “Social media use is associated with depression, sleep disturbance, eating disorders, and suicidal behavior. None of these are things that parents want for their children, so rather than trusting Instagram/Meta to regulate content to be PG-13, parents should just opt their children out.”

Weeks before Meta announced its “PG-13” settings, a report was published alleging that most of Instagram’s “safety tools” are ineffective and leave teens vulnerable. Whistleblower and former Meta employee Arturo Béjar led the review, which determined that 64% of Meta’s “safety tools” and regulations are “ineffective, unmaintained, quietly changed, or removed.” Béjar said, “Kids, including many under 13, are not safe on Instagram. This is not about bad content on the internet, it’s about careless product design. Meta’s conscious product design and implementation choices are selecting, promoting, and bringing inappropriate content, contact and compulsive use to children every day.”

Béjar’s study examined Instagram’s 47 “safety tools,” concluding that only eight are effective, while 30 had either been discontinued or ineffective, with “test accounts” based on the online behavior of children, parents, and predators easily bypassing or deceiving the safeguards in under three minutes. According to the report, adult accounts can still message minors via Instagram “reels,” offensive and explicit language is not blocked for teens’ accounts, social media algorithms still promoted sexual and violent content to minors, and Instagram’s autocomplete would still recommend supposedly barred subjects in children’s searches. Meta was critical of the report’s findings.

In a social media post, the financial tech company Vestr wrote of the updated settings, “At first glance, it’s about protecting teens. In reality, it’s about protecting the business.” Vester observed that “[r]egulatory heat has been building for years,” with the European Union enforcing its Digital Services Act and fining social media companies and websites portions of their global revenue for content infractions and laws being passed in states across the U.S. shielding minors from harmful effects of social media. Noting how failures to safeguard child users have harmed Meta financially, Vestr added that “the big picture is clear. These restrictions on teens aren’t just about morality, they’re about long-term monetization.”

The updated settings for Teen Accounts will be rolled out in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Australia before being introduced globally.