“First, it can be simpler and easier to use, and that’s one of the goals of this launch,” she said. “Second, there are some inconsistencies in the current settings that we have. … And then the third thing is we just want to have more control and tools to help their teen online.”

The rollout won’t be immediate, though. New users will be placed into teen accounts by default upon signing up if they’re under 18, but existing teen users may not see any immediate changes. According to a Meta Fact Sheet , many people around the world won’t be placed into teen accounts until next year.

In addition to the new privacy limits, such accounts will also be placed on the most restrictive content setting, which limits potentially sensitive content from accounts they don’t follow. The accounts will also have the Hidden Words feature turned on, which means that offensive words or phrases should be automatically filtered out of any comments or direct messages they receive.

Users under 16 need permission from their parents or other guardians to change the settings of their new teen account. Teens over 16 can do this themselves, unless their accounts are still linked to parental controls.

Meta expects teens to seek solutions, Gleit said, so the company plans to test a number of measures to prevent teens from changing their age or creating new accounts with an adult’s date of birth.

“If you have one account and then you try to create a new account on the same phone, we will ask you to verify your age. For example, we will ask for a government ID or a video selfie to prove your age,” Gleit said.

Meta may also be able to track teens who use different devices to create adult accounts, for example if they register with the same email address or phone number as their original teen account.

“And we’re also working on a technology to try to predict, for people who are a certain age as an adult, we think they’re lying and they might actually be a teenager,” Gleit said. “For those people, we also want to ask them to verify their age and put them in teen accounts as well.”

Using artificial intelligence, the technology, which Meta says is an industry first, should help Instagram predict whether users are over or under 18, even if their accounts include an adult birthday.