Expanding Instagram’s School Partnership Program to Help Teens Stay Informed

At Meta, we want the same thing as parents and educators: to ensure teens have safe, age-appropriate experiences online, and that the time teens spend on our apps is meaningful. That’s why we introduced Teen Accounts for Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and Threads, and why we recently announced an agreement with 52 bipartisan state Attorneys General across the US that will further support teens and parents with new restrictions. 

Last year, we launched the School Partnership Program in partnership with the International Society for Technology in Education and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ISTE+ASCD) to help protect teens from safety issues like online bullying. This program makes it easier for educators to report potential teen safety issues directly to us, and we’re proud to share that we’ve partnered with nearly 17,000 schools so far. 

Following feedback from school administrators, educators, and parents about how difficult it is to keep students informed about what’s happening across their school communities, we’re creating a new, centralized hub for school-related accounts. This will make it easier for schools to reach students, and for students to stay safe and informed on Instagram. Now, schools that sign up to become school partners on Instagram will have easy access to: 

• Channels: Schools can share quick updates to followers, including parents and the wider community. Only school administrators can post.
• School Stories and Notes: These give school-related accounts the ability to post stories and notes visible to all verified students. School administrators can monitor and remove these Stories and Notes.
• Prioritized reporting: Reports submitted by school partners that may violate Instagram’s Community Standards will be prioritized for review. Schools will also receive status updates on the reports and notifications as soon as Instagram takes action on the report.
• Educational resources: Instagram will provide resources that help support educators, parents, guardians, and students navigate Instagram safely.

Verified students at schools participating in the School Partnership Program will have the ability to access new features we’re announcing today, including:

• Clubs and Teams: School administrators, educators, and students will have the ability to add clubs and teams within their participating school, for example, the “Central High School Mathletes” as a centralized hub for communicating upcoming events and information. 
• School Stories and Notes: Students will be able to view announcements, game results, and event reminders happening at their schools. Only club and team account admins and School Partnership Program admins can post.
• Student Banner and Directory: To help stay connected to classmates, students can see a directory of other students at their school, or make a school banner. This is only visible to other students and teen followers they follow back.

We don’t want social media to be a distraction from school. These features are built to support educators and help teens to stay informed outside of classroom hours. That’s why Teen Accounts give parents easy ways to block their teens from using Instagram during school hours. 

How We’re Building Safety into These New Features

Keeping teens safe online is paramount and we want to assure educators and parents that we’re building these features with the proper protections in place so teens can explore their interests and express their creativity in a safe, age-appropriate space. 

Middle and high schools in the US can sign up for the School Partnership Program by selecting ‘Account type and tools’ or ‘Business tools and controls.’ See full step by step instructions here. Schools can also visit about.instagram.com/community/educators to learn more. 

We’ve partnered with third-party validator UNiDAYS to verify high school students before they can join their verified school community. If they’re not verified, they won’t have access to these features. Clubs and teams posts are intended to be a centralized information hub for school communities. School administrators and educators at participating schools can also remove Club and Team accounts, Stories, and Notes. Through our Family Center, parents are able to get insights into their teen’s school participation, including notifications if their teen leaves or joins a school.

We look forward to continuing to partner with schools to further support youth safety.