By India McCarty
Instagram just announced a new set of teen settings based on the Motion Picture Association’s PG-13 ratings, but the MPA claims the company didn’t ask its permission before rolling them out.
“The Motion Picture Association was not contacted by Meta prior to the announcement of its new content moderation tool for Instagram Teen Accounts,” MPA chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin said in a statement. “We welcome efforts to protect kids from content that may not be appropriate for them, but assertions that Instagram’s new tool will be ‘guided by PG-13 movie ratings’ or have any connection to the film industry’s rating system are inaccurate.”
Instagram has not yet responded to the MPA’s statement, per Variety.
MPA Statement on Instagram Using the PG-13 Rating to Guide New Content Moderation Toolhttps://t.co/MlMAgEOqQO pic.twitter.com/hbQYCrwhhr
Related: Instagram Takes Steps to Improve Teen Safety. Will They Work?
— Motion Picture Association (@motionpictures) October 14, 2025
Parent company Meta announced these new teen settings in a blog post earlier this month.
“Today, we’re announcing that Instagram Teen Accounts will be guided by PG-13 movie ratings by default,” Meta shared in a post to its website. “This means that teens will see content on Instagram that’s similar to what they’d see in a PG-13 movie. Teens under 18 will be automatically placed into an updated 13+ setting, and they won’t be able to opt out without a parent’s permission.”
There is also the option for parents to put stricter content controls in place. The new settings will roll out gradually in the US, UK, Canada and Australia before heading to other markets by the end of the year.
“We recognize no system is perfect, and we’re committed to improving over time,” Meta concluded. “We hope this update reassures parents that we’re working to show teens safe, age-appropriate content on Instagram by default, while also giving them more ways to shape their teen’s experience.”
While these new settings are a step in the right direction to protect teens online, The Hollywood Reporter pointed out it’s “not feasible” to have the same kind of content warnings as a movie, as “more than three billion monthly active users [are] posting content every second of every day.”
“There is also no indication that the change is being done in coordination with the MPA, rather this is about framing the content rules for users,” THR continued. “That means that it will need to rely on its AI-driven content detection system to make the determinations for it.”
Meta’s new teen safety settings for Instagram show the company is taking parents’ worries about appropriate content seriously. Hopefully, its new MPA-inspired rating system will pay off!
Read Next: Instagram’s New Update is a Victory for Teen Safety
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