Tech Desk 
Oct 14, 2025
Instagram is strengthening its safety precautions for teenagers by launching new PG-13 content guidelines in order to make the platform safer and give parents more control over what young people see online.
Meta owns the platform and announced that all teen accounts now fall under a "parental guidance" rating similar to the film industry's PG-13 rating.
Instagram PG-13 content rules
The new rules mean Instagram will limit accounts in a few specific areas, including sharing or promoting drug use, alcohol consumption, and sexualized content.
Teens will be protected from posts about inappropriate language or behaviour and sexualized content as part of Instagram’s attempt to provide a more appropriate experience for teens.
Instagram is also announcing a new control setting called “Limited Content” to help with parental supervision, allowing parents to restrict what the teen can view.
If a teen account user installs this limited content setting, the user under 18 will be placed into the 13+ category and cannot switch out of this category without parental permission.
Meta explained the reasoning behind the move, saying: “While of course there are differences between movies and social media, we made these changes so teens’ experience in the 13+ setting feels closer to the Instagram equivalent of watching a PG-13 movie.”
It is important to note, the new guidelines come after independent research and whistleblower reports raised concerns over Instagram’s child-safety measures. One former Meta employee revealed that 64% of existing safety tools were ineffective in protecting younger users from harmful content.
