Instagram Teen Accounts will be guided by PG-13 movie ratings, Meta announced on Oct. 14.

“This means that teens will see content on Instagram that’s similar to what they’d see in a PG-13 movie,” the company said in a statement.

Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, revamped its program to follow an “independent standard” familiar to parents.

“While of course there are differences between movies and social media, we made these changes so teens’ experiences in the 13+ setting feel closer to the Instagram equivalent of watching a PG-13 movie,” the statement said.

Parents will be able to add a stricter “Limited Content” setting if they feel that the PG-13 policy is still too lax. That setting will prevent teens from seeing, leaving, or receiving comments under posts, the statement said.

“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,” the company wrote. “We recognize no system is perfect, and we’re committed to improving over time.”

Teenagers under the age of 18 won’t be able to change their settings without a parent’s approval.

The updated policy will go into effect in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada on Oct. 14. It won’t be fully rolled out until the end of 2025.

The social media platform also revealed that it’s going to test a new way for parents to flag content they find inappropriate for minors on Instagram, such as self-harm, sexual activity, selling restricted items, bullying, violence, scams, false information, or intellectual property.

Instagram Teen Accounts were introduced in September 2024 with settings that included default private accounts, messaging restrictions, and sensitive content controls.

Hundreds of millions of teens globally have been placed into Teen accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger since the rollout, according to the company.

Meta said it uses AI technology to spot suspected teens acting as adults on the platform and adjusts their account settings accordingly.

Despite the many safety tools, a study released on Sept. 25 suggests that kids using Instagram are still exposed to harmful content.

Led by former senior Meta engineer Arturo Béjar, the study said that 30 of the 47 safety features on Instagram are either “substantially ineffective or no longer exist.”

Meta disputed the findings, saying the researchers failed to understand how parents use its safety tools.