KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Share your story idea with Ryan.
—
Instagram's parent company, Meta, announced Tuesday that teenagers utilizing the platform will be restricted to seeing PG-13 content by default starting at the end of 2025. Teens will not be able to adjust their settings without a parent's permission.
"This is the most significant update to Teen Accounts since we introduced them last year, and builds on the automatic protections already provided by Teen Accounts to hundreds of millions of teens globally," Meta wrote in a press release. "We know teens may try to avoid these restrictions, which is why we’ll use age prediction technology to place teens into certain content protections — even if they claim to be adults."
As a mother of four, Sarah McGinnity is navigating the challenges of her teenage son's first cell phone.
"Making decisions about access to screens, technology, it’s truly a part-time job as a parent today. Navigating the parental controls and just time has been a new adventure," said McGinnity, who is also the owner of the Kansas City Mom Collective.
McGinnity doesn't permit much access to social media accounts, aside from fantasy football privileges and Discord.
"To expect our kids to navigate comparison and questionable content, I think, is really naive to think a kid without a fully formed brain can navigate that safely," McGinnity said.
She's not sold on the opening of the world of social media to her son with Instagram's new teen account restrictions.
Instagram's change will follow similar protocols of the PG-13 rating in the movie industry — not permitting content involving sex, drugs and dangerous stunts, among others.
"I think it’s all a PR move, and I don’t know what they're going to say is PG-13 content," McGinnity said.
Tracy Foster is the co-founder of a Kansas City-raised organization called Screen Sanity. Its mission is to promote healthy lifestyles beyond devices.
"I’m absolutely celebrating the progress," Foster told KSHB 41. "I have some skepticism as to how much this will fully do it."
As a mom herself, screen time is a constant conversation in her home. She's admittedly guilty of overusing her devices and scrolling social media.
But in Foster's eyes, the problem lies with the software used to manage the content and its ability to keep up.
"Just because they’re removing some of the risk factors, some of the unhealthy, unsafe things, doesn’t mean that it is exactly healthy for a 13-year-old to surf," Foster said.
Multiple studies indicate social media can have adverse effects on youth mental health; social media use can heighten the impacts of depression and anxiety in teens.
"We’re seeing mental health implications, from what we would call excessive social media use, generally," said Marc Berkman, with the Organization for Social Media Safety. "And that is very likely happening with Instagram as well. So daily use, use at three-plus hours, has been linked to anxiety and depression, self-harm, body image issues."
Berkman's concern is that these protections won't actually have the impact Instagram says they will.
"Parents need to think strongly whether this is the right choice for their teens," Berkman said.
Instagram anticipates the new restrictions will roll out by the end of 2025.
—
