Scroll Smarter: Instagram’s ‘PG-13 rating’

November 11, 2025

Nov. 11, 2025

in this issue

Top stories | Family Q&A | Bonus reads | Video of the month

Instagram: Teens to get PG-13 rating

Can social media content be rated the way movies are? Meta thinks so. The company has added more restrictions to Instagram teen accounts, which it says follows similar guidelines to PG-13 movies.

What to know:

⛔ No alcohol. No gore. No risky stunts. Instagram will block more search terms for teens and hide posts that feature strong language.

🧠 This content moderation effort comes after a study found that most teens using Instagram said they saw “unsafe content and unwanted messages.”

🎥 There is no partnership between Instagram and the film industry’s official moving ratings system — and the Motion Picture Association asked Meta to stop referring to teen content as “guided by PG-13 ratings.”

What you can do:

⏲️ Manage screen time limits for kids and discuss what they see online. Start a conversation by asking, “Based on what you saw online today, what do you think social media algorithms will show you next?”

➡️ Check out recommendations from the American Psychological Association.

📖 A new study found that kids who use social media score lower on reading and memory tests.

‘McVulnerability’ spreads online

More time online means teens are spending less time socializing in person and forming deep friendships. One consequence of this: perceived vulnerability is moving to social media (link warning: mentions acronym for suicide).

What to know:

🍔 Like fast food, the phenomenon of McVulnerability — a quick fix of performative vulnerability online — is easy and comforting, but not necessarily healthy.

👨🏼‍🤝‍👨🏿 Emotional intimacy in relationships requires vulnerability, but authentic vulnerability — which has some inherent discomfort — is harder to reciprocate on social media.

What you can do:

💬 Neuroscientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang suggests watching influencer videos that use performative vulnerability with your teens and talking to them about it. Start the convo with: “What is their motive for posting this content for millions of people online?”

🌱 Psychologist Maytal Eyal recommends encouraging kids to unplug and seek out social experiences that help them break out of their shell — like being a camp counselor or spending time outdoors.

NEW REPORT

Most teens view journalists negatively

A just-released News Literacy Project survey of more than 750 teenagers found that most teens hold negative views of the press.

What to know:

🗞️ Most teens think the press is trying to deceive rather than inform the public and believe journalists regularly engage in unethical practices.

🚫 This matters because teens who have little trust in journalists are more vulnerable to propaganda and conspiracy theories.

What you can do:

📰 Read, watch, listen to or scroll news coverage together. Ask teens how they know what a credible news source is and how they can determine if information is verified. (For guidance, check out this handy infographic on journalism standards.)

➡️ View more takeaways and recommendations in this News Literacy Project blog post.

Want to talk algorithms? Grab some Skittles

Question:

As my child is starting to consume media like monitored YouTube videos, what are ways to talk to children during different ages? For example, my child is 5 years old. How do we explain and approach complex subjects like what is an algorithm?

— Seeking Age-Appropriate Advice

Answer:

As a trusted confidant in a young person’s life, you’re the best judge of what will work for a particular kid. If you’re considering a conversation with a teen or older child, you can likely talk directly about the tech. If your child is younger, an analogy that relates to their daily lives can be helpful. Since you mentioned algorithms, let’s dive in using that example.

Teens and tweens likely already have a basic grasp of how algorithms customize what they see online — but they might not fully understand why and how this works. Try looking together at their social media feeds and asking for their take on why these posts are being suggested. But don’t stop there: Make sure they also know that the ultimate purpose of suggestion algorithms is to keep you scrolling to gather more data about you so that the platform can target you with ads.

To further illustrate this point, you could create a YouTube account together so you start without any history. Search for something like cute puppies. Watch a few of the videos that pop up. Then watch how suggestions start to roll in for more puppy videos. That’s the algorithm tailoring suggestions to the preferences you’ve expressed as well as the activity of other users with similar interests. That’s another way algorithms keep us transfixed: suggesting unrelated content we’re likely to engage with.

For younger kids, you might try an explanation like this: Imagine you have a magic bag of Skittles. Let’s say your favorite color is red, so you start by eating the red Skittles when you open a new bag. This magic bag of Skittles can recognize you’re pulling the reds out first. Every time you pull out a red Skittle, two more red Skittles appear in the bag. When you reach back in for another, there are more red Skittles inside! So you pull out more red Skittles. This is how algorithms work: they serve up videos or other content based on what we choose to watch or interact with.

These examples might be light and fun, but algorithms often suggest more and more shocking content to keep us watching — and that can lead to some strange and harmful places, like conspiracy theory accounts. Understanding how algorithms can suck you in is a great first step.

➡️ Do you have a news literacy question? Send us your questions in this form and we may answer it in this newsletter. If your question is picked, you’ll win swag from the News Literacy Project! Questions may be edited or rephrased for clarity and length.

🔞 AI age restrictions: Character.AI, which creates chatbot companions, is limiting how kids under 18 can use the app after concerns over its impact on children’s mental health (The New York Times).

💀 Slang game mid? Does Gen Z slang have you cooked? Lowkey try this quiz — it’s a banger (The Washington Post).

🗣️ Speaking of slang: “6-7” is Dictionary.com’s word of the year. Here’s where it came from and what it means (USA Today).

⚠️ AI antics: Some teens are pranking parents using AI tools to create realistic images of strangers in their homes and, in some cases, police are getting involved (Gizmodo).

🛟 Caring and sharing: Check out these helpful tips for talking with a family member or friend who is captivated by conspiracy theories (MIT Technology Review).

What to know about OpenAI's Sora app

Spotting an extra finger on an AI-generated video doesn’t cut it anymore. AI technology has advanced rapidly and the new Sora app can even produce realistic-looking videos using your own likeness. Here’s what you need to know about this new tool.