From now on, teenagers using Instagram will automatically be restricted to only be able to see content that fits the same guidelines as a PG-13 movie.

And if teens want to loosen those settings, they can’t just press a button to claim they’re of age - parent permission will be needed.

Parents will also be able to choose an even stricter “limited content” setting, which blocks more mature content and limits how much teens can comment or be commented on.

“We know teens may try to avoid these restrictions, which is why we’ll use age prediction technology to place teens into certain content protections - even if they claim to be adults,” Meta wrote in the announcement.

Teen accounts were first introduced last year, with guidelines that already covered graphic or disturbing images, and adult content like tobacco or alcohol sales from teens.

In the latest update, this extends further to “hiding or not recommending posts with strong language, certain risky stunts, and additional content that could encourage potentially harmful behaviours.”

While the new PG-13 guideline aims to heavily block out sexual, violent and drug-related content from our teens' accounts - just like the movies, Meta says there may still be some content with minimal use of strong language that may slip through.

“We’re going to keep doing all we can to keep those instances as rare as possible. We recognise no system is perfect, and we’re committed to improving over time,” the social media giant explains.

Other improvements to teen safety on Instagram include:

• No longer be able to follow accounts found regularly sharing age-inappropriate content - if teens already follow these accounts, they’ll no longer be able to see or interact with their content, send them DMs, or comment - this works both ways to protect the R18 accounts from contacting teens.

• Block search terms, such as ‘alcohol’ or ‘gore’. Other sensitive topics, like ‘suicide’, ‘self-harm’, and ‘eating disorders’, are already restricted - even when they’re misspelt

• AI experiences for teens to be guided by PG-13 ratings by default, meaning AIs should not give age-inappropriate responses that would feel out of place

The new teen settings start rolling out today across the US, UK, Australia, and Canada - with plans to go global by the end of the year.