Facebook Parent Meta Expands Safety Controls for Teens

Limits being tested include reducing social media posts on Instagram about nutrition, weight lifting and anxiety

Edward C. Baig,

AARP

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Published June 02, 2026

a photo shows a teenage boy looking at a smartphone screen

Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Key takeaways

The new limits aim to reduce repeated exposure to posts on nutrition, weight lifting and anxiety.
Default teen account settings are now expanding worldwide.
Independent testing found large drops in mature content when default restrictions were applied.

Parents and grandparents understandably worry that their teenage kids and grandkids are addicted to Instagram and other social media. Such concerns are heightened if the content is deemed harmful or inappropriate and is constantly fed to them.

On Tuesday, Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Messenger, Facebook and WhatsApp, announced new, expanded content-safety controls it says can help teens 13 and older “get more variety in what they see and helps prevent them from seeing certain types of content repeatedly.”

Limits to content on Instagram that the company is testing include posts about “nutrition, weightlifting, or how to cope with anxiety.”

We are “continuing to explore other ways to help make sure teens are having positive, age-appropriate experiences on our apps,” Meta wrote in a press release. “We recognize that some content … can be helpful, but it should be balanced” with other content.

The backdrop to the announcement is the first major public changes Meta has made since recent courtroom defeats. In March, a Los Angeles jury determined that Meta and Google-owned YouTube caused mental health distress in a young woman related to addictive design choices such as “infinite scrolls” and “beauty filters.” She was awarded $6 million.

a photo shows teenagers looking at their phone screens displaying various social media apps

Anna Barclay/Getty Images

A separate case in Santa Fe, New Mexico, ordered Meta to pay $375 million for “misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms and endangering children.”

“Meta’s announcement should be understood in the important context that two juries ... recently found Meta liable for harming children,” said James P. Steyer, the founder and CEO of the nonprofit Common Sense Media, an advocacy organization for kids in the digital age, in a statement provided to AARP.

Last October, Meta updated its 13+ teen account policy in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada. Meta says the goal is to deliver age-appropriate content by default, based on criteria inspired by parent feedback and movie ratings. However, it clarified that it did not work with the Motion Picture Association on those ratings. According to Meta, 9 out of 10 teens have remained on the default settings since the launch. Those safeguards are now being expanded globally.

Teens who think they can persuade parents they are mature can try to lobby their mom and dad to ease those restrictions.

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Fresh restrictions are also designed to hide inappropriate content in places like Feed and Reels and to limit teen interaction with Profiles, Pages, Groups and Events that surface such material.

Meta added that it is inviting parents to rate and share whether Facebook and Instagram are delivering age-appropriate content. The company also solicited help from a trust and safety organization called Alice to evaluate Teen Accounts settings and “perform sophisticated adversarial stress-testing.”

Alice said the default Instagram 13+ setting resulted in 68 percent less mature content than Meta’s competitors were delivering to teens. When stricter restrictions were applied, 96 percent less content was surfaced.

But Alice also identified areas for improvement, which Meta says it acted on quickly. These included posts about “risky stunts” or “viral challenges.”

One example was “car surfing,” which Meta added to its restrictive policies, along with restrictions already in place for dangerous activities like “subway surfing.”

The policy changes haven’t satisfied all of Meta’s critics.

“What is needed is independent oversight and accountability,” Common Sense Media’s Steyer said in his statement. “As part of an ongoing legal effort focused on child safety and sexual exploitation on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, this review would provide the kind of transparent, external scrutiny necessary to determine whether Meta is truly making the changes needed to protect our kids.”  

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The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.     

Edward C. Baig covers technology and other consumer topics. He previously worked for USA Today, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report and Fortune. He is the author of Macs for Dummies and coauthor of iPhone for Dummies and iPad for Dummies. Follow him on LinkedIn, Threads and X (formerly known as Twitter).                   