Instagram's "Teen Accounts" safety feature, launched with significant fanfare last month as one of the platform's most significant child safety initiatives in years, has been partially rolled back after an unexpected and embarrassing consequence: the DM restrictions designed to protect teenagers from contact with strangers also blocked them from messaging their own parents, teachers, and coaches who hadn't yet been added to their approved contacts list.
The backlash was swift and bipartisan. Parents who had been told the feature would protect their children found themselves locked out of their kids' DMs. Schools that used Instagram to communicate extracurricular information found their accounts flagged. The hashtag #LetParentsDMTheirKids trended on X for 11 hours.