Instagram has expanded its teen accounts feature to India, months after its launch in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.

The protections for such an account involve who teens interact with, the type of content they are exposed to, and how they manage their time on the platform. The safeguards are turned on by default, and for users under 16, any adjustments to make settings less restrictive would require parental approval.

Teen account holders will have the strictest messaging settings enabled, allowing them to receive messages only from people they follow or are already connected with. Further, their exposure to sensitive content, like “depictions of physical fights or promotions of cosmetic procedures”, in sections like explore and reels will be placed in the most restrictive setting.

To help manage time spent on the platform, teens will receive notifications “prompting them to exit the app after 60 minutes of daily usage”, said a Meta statement. Also, sleep mode will be enabled between 10pm and 7am, muting notifications and automatically sending replies to direct messages overnight.

“With the expansion of Instagram Teen Accounts to India, we are strengthening protections, enhancing content controls, and empowering parents, while ensuring a safer experience for teens,” said Natasha Jog, director, public policy India, Instagram.

The step may help address some of the concerns parents and policymakers have about issues such as cyberbullying, exposure to harmful content and privacy risks.

Parents of those who use teen accounts will have supervision tools to monitor and manage their teen’s experience, including approving changes to safety settings and setting daily screentime limits. They can also see a list of people their teen has messaged in the past seven days (without reading the content of those messages) and block Instagram during specific hours.

A bigger challenge for Meta involves having effective age verification measures in place. Instagram said that “additional verification steps will be required in certain situations”, like when someone attempts to create an account with an adult birthdate.

Last month, the government released the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules that require verifiable consent of parents before processing any personal data of anyone under 18.

The Telegraph has reached out to Meta for clarity around the age verification process.