👉 A Parent’s Guide to the Supervision Feature
By: Brooke Shannon
📉 Research is crystal clear: Instagram has negatively affected a generation of children. Multiple studies—including internal research conducted by Meta (Instagram’s parent company)—have documented the platform's harmful impact on young users.
In addition to concerns about mental health, Instagram has exposed children to inappropriate content, including violence, pornography, pro-eating disorder messaging, and easy access to online predators. For years, the platform lacked parental controls, limiting parents' ability to monitor and manage their children’s activity.
🔍 Enter: Instagram’s Supervision Feature
To address these risks, Instagram introduced a feature called Supervision, designed to give parents more insight into and control over their teen’s experience on the platform.
⚠️ The Problem? Most Parents Aren’t Using It
Research shows that many families aren’t using the Supervision feature though. In fact, Meta found that fewer than 1 in 10 teens on Instagram currently have parental supervision turned on.
🗣️ Parents—if your teen is on Instagram, it’s crucial to set up Supervision.
While the tool isn’t perfect, it offers significantly more protection than having no safety tools at all.
✅ What Supervision Lets You Do
Once set up through Instagram’s Family Center, Supervision allows parents to:
⏰ Set Boundaries
Daily time limits across all devices and ability to block use once limit is met
Sleep Mode to block use during specific hours
📱 Monitor Screen Time
See how much time your teen spends daily & weekly on Instagram
🤝 Review Social Connections
See who your teen follows, who follows them, and who they’ve blocked
View chat contacts (not message content)
🔐 Check Safety Settings
Account privacy level
Manage interaction settings—control who can contact your teen.
Limit sensitive content
View and manage content topic preferences the teen has chosen to see on Instagram. Teens can update this setting anytime, yet parents can easily see what it is set to in the Family Center.
🛠️ How to Set It Up
🔄 Step 1: Update the App
Make sure both you and your teen have the latest version of the Instagram app. Parents also can access Supervision via Instagram.com on a browser.
🔗 Step 2: Link the Accounts
To activate Supervision, both the parent and the teen must agree to it in their accounts. Either one can initiate the setup by sending an invitation. Once accepted, supervision begins.
📌 Only one parent can supervise a teen account at a time.
👥 Who Can Use Supervision?
Teens must be 13–17 years old
Parents must be 18 or older
Both parent and teen must have (or create) Instagram accounts.
Supervision automatically ends when a teen turns 18 based on the birthdate listed in their account. Both the parent and the teen will be notified when supervision ends.
⚠️ If your child used a fake birthday to join early, their account may show them as 18 or older and Instagram will not allow you to supervise the account. To fix this:
Update the birthdate in your child’s account. More information on how to do this is in Instagram’s help center.
🎉 Supervision IS Set Up — Now What?
To manage your teen’s activity:
Go to your profile → Tap the ☰ icon → Select Family Center → Choose your teen’s account.
Inside the Family Center, you can:
🔐 View account privacy settings
🧍 Manage who can contact your teen
👀 Limit what content they see
⏱️ Set daily time limits and sleep mode
👥 Review connections —see who your teen follows, who follows them, who they’ve blocked, and who they’ve messaged (though not the content of the messages).
💡 Tip: Limit Instagram use to 30–60 minutes per day. In our home, we cap it at 30 minutes. The more time allowed, the more problems your teen is likely to experience on the platform.
🧠 Weekly Check-ins: Talk, Don’t Just Monitor
Checking the Family Center is helpful—but talking to your teen is critical.
Here are some great conversation starters:
How much time do you spend on Instagram each day? Too much? Too little?
Are you using it during school or when you’re bored?
Do you connect more with friends in person or online?
Are you taking breaks from social media?
What kinds of accounts do you follow, and why?
Do any friends or influencers make you feel anxious or insecure in Instagram?
How do you feel after scrolling—happy, stressed, or down?
Have you noticed how often filters are used? Why do you think people use them?
Is your social media use aligned with your values?
💬 Important Reminders to Share With Your Teen
✅ Instagram is not real life . You’re only seeing carefully selected moments from others' lives.
✅ Likes don’t define your worth. The more time we spend on social media, the easier it is to start comparing our lives to what other people post and how they respond to our posts. It can feel like how we look or what we do only matters if it gets likes, comments, or attention.
✅ Toxic messages (like racism, body shaming, or sexism) show up online. Be aware and let’s talk about anything disturbing coming across your digital path.
✅ Only accept requests from people you know in real life. Fake profiles are common. When you get a request, review the account’s profile. See if you have any mutual connects.
✅ Think before you post. Private accounts still aren’t truly private—screenshots exist.
📚 Need More Guidance?
Check out the Wait Until 8th Social Media Guide for more tools and advice on how to help your teen with social media.
Please note, we do not recommend any social media for children under 16. If you said yes too early, consider hitting the pause button.
Brooke Shannon lives in Austin with her husband and three daughters. She is the founder and the Executive Director of the Wait Until 8th pledge. The pledge empowers parents to delay the smartphone for their children until at least the end 8th grade. Join more than 115,000 parents in saying yes to waiting on the smartphone by pledging today.
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