Meta is broadening its Teen Accounts to Facebook and Messenger. As on Instagram, the company will automatically shift teens to the new accounts with mandatory parental control features and restrictions on who they can message and interact with. Teens under the age of 16 need their parents’ permission to change any of the settings.

The feature will be available on these platforms in the US, the UK, Australia and Canada before expanding to more regions in the future.

Teen Accounts were introduced on Instagram last September after the platform and other popular social networks were grilled by US lawmakers for not doing enough to protect teens.

Since the company first introduced the feature on Instagram last autumn, it now has 54 million teens with the more locked-down accounts. The platform requires teens between the ages of 13 and 15 to use a teen account and has in-app tools meant to catch those lying about their ages.

At the moment, Teen Account come with tighter controls. Teens are encouraged to spend more time offline with 60-minute time limit reminders and a sleep mode that mutes notifications between 10pm and 7am.

Further, Meta is adding extra protections to Teen Accounts on Instagram “in the next couple of months” that prevent minors from starting a live broadcast or disabling a feature that blurs images in DM when nudity is detected.

“We developed Teen Accounts with parents in mind and introduced protections that were responsive to their top concerns. We’re continuing to listen to parents, and that includes conducting research to understand how they feel about the changes,” Meta said in a statement.

In a recent survey, conducted by Ipsos and commissioned by Meta, the company asked US parents how Teen Accounts would help them and their teens. The result? Nearly all parents surveyed (94 per cent) say Teen Accounts are helpful for parents, and 85 per cent believe Teen Accounts make it easier for them to help their teens have positive experiences on Instagram.