Parents' Guide to

Instagram

By Liz Panarelli, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

All-in-one social app for sharing, shopping, and scrolling.

Instagram Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

Community Reviews

age 14+

Based on 184 parent reviews

age 12+

Instagram for strict parents

I have 2 kids, a daughter whos 14 and a son whos 16. I remember having a conversation with my oldest when he was about 11. He was saying all his friends had it and all that. I did some of my own research and told him that he needed to be 12. . There were going to be some rules though, his Mom I and would follow his account. We did not want him to waste a lot of time on it. Instagram does make time fly, we didnt want him to be a pariah but we wanted him to not waste too much time on it. He has a screen time limit of 2 hrs a day; Instagram/Gaming/Youtube/Netflix are all mixed in this. Normally we wouldn't care how he split the time, but gaming has benefits to the brain while Instagram does not. The maximum amount he could ever spend on it was 35 minutes. And we checked every week. He did go over it sometimes so we had to reinforce the rules and suspend it once in a while. He is now 16 and still follows the rules. As parents we tend to underestimate kids, if you clearly state rules and punishments, they will follow. With my daughter I was worried about creeps. I was worried about the bad people getting to communicate with her. I let her get Instagram for her 14th birthday, we had very strict rules for her. She could follow only her friends and celebs. NO STRANGERS. Strangers could follow her because teens want followers but, she could only follow her friends. We made it clear to her that if someone started flirting with her over Instagram, and she didnt know them, it was not ok. We wanted her not to be scared of us forcing her to delete it so that was not an option. What I've learned from friends children is that if you do not let your child use it, they will use it on their own terms ignoring you. That opens many bad doors, its better to let them know that we are allowing them, not that they are doing it themselves. After all, how long can parents control their kid. Instagram is a double sided sword. Used wisely it can be a good tool. Used unwisely, could lead to problems. As parents that's where we come in, don't be afraid to take their phone without warning and check it. Before giving them Instagram lay out the rules. My rules are; 1. Strangers can follow, but no conversations with them. 2. Parents follow the account to see what stuff they post. 3. Strict time limit of 35. 4.Parents can search phone if wished. 5. It can be suspended until further notice as punishment. PS: I have found that Instagram is much safer than Facebook and SnapChat.
age 10+

Instagram is great for artists! And is much less explicit that tik tok, it all depends on what your searching up

Yep, this app is actually a nice app for sharing art and getting positive feedback, never have a once got any mean comments or anything like that. Yes the internet tends to have nudity and swearing, but the things you scroll through are only people you follow, so unless you follow someone bad it won’t happen, also if you VERY worried about that stuff, than stay away from the search section, and delete direct messages from strangers, also you can make your account private, I HAtE When kids act like they are adults on here when they ARE Children! That needs to be stopped. But overall I’d let my teen have this over the WAY more explicit tik Tok. Thanks for reading! ❤️

Privacy Rating Warning

  • Data are not sold or rented to third parties.
  • Data are shared for third-party advertising and/or marketing.
  • Data are collected by third-party advertising or tracking services.
  • Data are used to track and target advertisements on other third-party websites or services.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (184 ):
Kids say (472 ):

This social network offers cool photo effects powerfully combined with the social seduction of Facebook, the popularity filter of Reddit, the hashtag and follower sharing models of Twitter, the music-based videos of TikTok, and the curse and blessing of commentary on YouTube -- and that's just within the app. Instagram makes your photos and videos look stylish, and then makes it easy to share them instantly, across multiple platforms, allowing you to broadcast how #awesome your life is right now. The competition for cool can get a little tiresome -- the comments are full of users seeking followers -- and as with any huge social app, the experience can be an enormous mixed bag with a dark underbelly.

It's admirable that you can create notifications to remind you of how much time you've spent on the app each day, and in December 2021, Instagram announced it would be introducing new parental controls in the U.S., which it planned to subsequently add globally. Those features are a different move for the social media platform. In mid-June, Instagram announced additional controls for parents would also be released. Parents can now receive updates to let them know the users their child follows -- and is followed by -- and they can get a notification if their child reports another user. Parents can also set usage limits for their child for certain days of the week or even times of day. The additional features that were announced in June include the ability for parents to ask their child to approve them being able to use the supervision tools. Previously, teens had to initiate that process within the Instagram app, which may not have been ideal for some parents because it left them to wait for their child to take action. At least initially checking and possibly changing some of your privacy settings when you register can be a good idea. When you're active in the app, for example, a green status dot is visible next to your name -- which your friends and other acquaintances could view as you being available to chat at times when you're actually not. That feature can be disabled in the app's Activity Status setting, though.

App Details

  • Devices: iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
  • Subjects: Arts : photography
  • Skills: Creativity : producing new content, Communication : conveying messages effectively, friendship building, multiple forms of expression, Tech Skills : digital creation, social media
  • Pricing structure: Free
  • Release date: April 21, 2012
  • Category: Photo & Video
  • Publisher: Instagram, Inc.
  • Version: 2.4.0
  • Minimum software requirements: IOS 3.1.2 or later; Android 2.2 and up
  • Last updated: January 23, 2019

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate