As Instagram tightens its policy to only allow users who are 14 years or older to create accounts, parental accounts representing children are being continuously deleted. According to Meta, accounts representing children under the age of 14 must clearly prove that they are being operated by a parent or manager, or they will be deleted. A system has also been introduced that allows other users to report accounts to Instagram that are impersonating children or whose managers are unclear.
As these regulations are strengthened, there are increasing reports online of parenting accounts that share their children’s daily lives disappearing one after another. In particular, many posts on Mom Cafe and other sites are causing great anxiety among parents, with posts such as “Children’s accounts have been permanently deactivated” and “Children’s accounts have been blown up overnight.” Some parents are speculating that Instagram’s AI age verification tool has mistakenly identified the account operator, resulting in the deletion of accounts.
Accordingly, various methods are being shared among parents who run childcare accounts to protect their accounts. For example, they are using methods such as stating on the profile that it is a ‘parent-managed account’, uploading photos of the entire family as well as the child, and tagging the parent’s account in the profile description. Through these efforts, parents are trying to share their children’s daily lives safely while complying with Instagram’s policies.
Meta is developing several features to protect minors. Earlier this year, we introduced Instagram’s Teen Account feature. It is automatically applied to minors under 16 and is designed to prevent them from changing sensitive settings without parental permission. Teen accounts include protections such as private account defaults, strict message and sensitive content restrictions, limited interactions, time-limited notifications, and power-saving mode.
