Teenagers in the UAE will now have ‘teen accounts’ as Meta announced the launch on June 19, a move that aims to help adolescents stay safe and give parents peace of mind.
Teen accounts will give users the “most protective content” and offer privacy settings by default to provide safer, more age-appropriate online experiences.
Built with input from parents, psychologists, and safety experts, Instagram teen accounts introduce a set of built-in protections that limit who can contact teens, the content they can see, and how much time they spend on the platform.
Teens under 16 in the UAE will automatically be placed into teen accounts and will need parental or guardian approval to change any of the protective settings to be less strict.
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The announcement comes as part of Meta’s broader commitment to supporting digital wellbeing and online safety, especially among younger users in the region.
Here are the six new protection features offered with the new mode:
Private accounts: Teen accounts will now be set to private mode by default and teens under 16 can only change this setting with help from a parent or guardian.
Messaging restrictions: Teen accounts are automatically set so teens can’t be messaged by anyone they’re not already connected to.
Sensitive content control: Teens will automatically be placed in the most restrictive setting of the sensitive content control, limiting their exposure to sensitive content in ‘explore’ and ‘reels’.
Limited interactions: Teens can only be tagged or mentioned by people they follow. The strictest version of the anti-bullying feature, ‘hidden words’, will also be enabled by default to filter out offensive language in comments and DM requests.
Time limit reminders: Teens will receive notifications prompting them to exit the app after 60 minutes of daily usage.
Sleep mode: Sleep mode will be enabled from 10pm to 7am, muting notifications and automatically sending replies to DMs overnight.
Meta announced the launch at the Youth Summit held in Dubai on June 18 in Emirates Towers. The event brought together UAE policy stakeholders, experts, parents, and teens for an open dialogue about how to build safer digital experiences for teens and addressed recent trends in youth wellbeing.
Additionally, parent creator, media personality and book author Helen Farmer, co-founder of Arab Child Summit; creator and educator Deema Al Alami and clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia Dr Tanya Dharamshi ran a workshop to explore Instagram’s safety and supervision tools and share best practices for creating healthy, supportive online experiences for teens.
Meta is also partnering with regional parent creators, like Alaa Abou Harb, The Afrobysara Family, Jana Alhafarand and others to develop short-form video guides and safety tips on Instagram, making it easier for families to understand and use the new tools available to them.
