Meta Platforms is rolling out special accounts with tougher privacy settings for teenage Instagram users in Australia.

It is the company’s latest effort to limit its exposure to harmful content on its apps amid regulatory pressure and will also apply to accounts in the US and Britain within 60 days.

The social media company, which also runs Facebook, will expand the tighter controls to the European Union within months before going global in January.

Under the changes, Meta will port all designated accounts automatically to teen accounts, which will be private by default.

Users of such accounts can be messaged and tagged only by accounts they follow or are already connected to.

Sensitive content settings will also be dialled to the most restrictive.

Users under 16 years can change the default settings only with a parent’s permission.

Parents will also get a suite of settings to monitor who their children are engaging with and limit their use of the app.

Hi 🫶 Today we’re introducing Teen Accounts, a new experience for teens with built-in safety features, plus more ways to see content you like.

Tap through for more info 👇https://t.co/rzkXknlMGa pic.twitter.com/YSRYxQkfpa

— Instagram (@instagram) September 17, 2024

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland welcomed the measures but called for further action to make children safer online, with evidence pointing to social media having a detrimental mental health and wellbeing impact on kids.

“The industry needs to do more and today’s announcement shows that they can do more,” she said in Sydney on Wednesday.

The federal government has committed to a trial of age verification technology and pledged to introduce a minimum age for social media.

An appropriate age between 13 and 16 was being assessed, Rowland said, but the trial needed to ensure the technology worked and companies were enforcing it.

“One of the reasons why it’s not getting enforced is that there isn’t a consistent set of age assurance standards across Australia,” she said.

Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said it was easy to work around the restrictions without robust age verification technology.

“If a 10-year-old signs up to Instagram in the future, the system is exactly the same as it is today and they can just say they are 20,” he said.

“Meta will do everything it can to avoid a real system of age verification because it will lead to them losing huge numbers of underage users over time.”

Meta acknowledged this was a risk and said it was working on age verification technology.

Cyber security envoy Andrew Charlton said the move validated the need to make social media safer for children but said other platforms should be regulated as well.

“We need to be thinking about what we can do in Australia, not just for Meta, but right across all of the platforms to have a nationally consistent approach that safeguards our young people on social media,” he told Sky News.

Meta, ByteDance’s TikTok and Google’s YouTube already face hundreds of lawsuits filed on behalf of children and school districts about the addictive nature of social media.

In 2023, 33 US states including California and New York sued the company for misleading the public about the dangers of its platforms.

Top platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, allow users who are 13 and above to sign up.

Meta’s move comes three years after it abandoned development on a version of the Instagram app meant for teenagers, after lawmakers and advocacy groups urged the company to drop it, citing safety concerns.

In its announcement on Wednesday, Meta said teen accounts were also coming to its other brands in 2025.

“These are big updates that will change the Instagram experience for millions of teens, and we need to make sure they work correctly,” it said.

-with AAP