The Art of Being Well
The Art of Being Well

AI & Our Brains + Should Social Media Be Banned for Teens? Instagram Executive's Uncensored Hot Takes | Tara Hopkins

September 18, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Tara Hopkins, Instagram’s global director of policy, spent years working on child protection at a major UK charity before joining Meta. She is also the parent of a 16-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son. That combination—professional insider and hands-on mom—gives her a grounded, non-defensive perspective on the hardest question in digital parenting right now: How do you let your teenager use social media without losing sleep over it?

The Three Things Parents Actually Worry About

Hopkins says that when Meta talks to parents around the world, three concerns come up every time, regardless of country or culture. First, contact: who can message or follow my teen? Second, content: what is the algorithm showing them? Third, time: how many hours are they spending on the app?

Instagram’s response is the Teen Account, now rolled out to hundreds of millions of users globally. When a teen signs up with their real age, the platform defaults them into the most protective settings available. Under-16s cannot change these settings without a parent’s permission. The defaults address all three concerns: strangers cannot initiate contact, content is restricted to what parents would consider appropriate for a 13-plus movie rating, and the teen gets a notification after one hour of daily use. Notifications are also muted from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. to protect sleep.

Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.

Read Full Summary →

Free • No credit card required

Listen to Audio Summary Open in App

What you'll learn

  • 1 (04:05) **Welcome & Tara Hopkins' Background** - Dr. Will Cole introduces Tara Hopkins, Instagram's Global Director of Policy, and they begin with a personal conversation about her Irish heritage.
  • 2 (11:41) **The Core Parental Concerns: Contact, Content & Time** - Tara outlines the three biggest worries parents have about teens on social media, which directly drove the creation of Instagram's Teen Accounts.
  • 3 (18:21) **Teen Account Data & Effectiveness** - Tara shares compelling statistics on how teens and parents are responding to the new protective features.
  • 4 (20:46) **Measuring "Time Well Spent" & Mental Health** - The conversation shifts to how Instagram defines and measures a positive experience for teens, beyond just screen time limits.
  • 5 (26:38) **The Minimum Age Debate: Is 13 Too Young?** - Dr. Will Cole asks about the appropriate age for social media use, referencing the Surgeon General's suggestion that 13 is too young.
  • 6 (34:12) **Parenting Different Kids: A Tale of Two Teens** - Both hosts, as parents of a boy and a girl, discuss how different personalities require different rules for social media use.
  • 7 (38:58) **Practical Tools for Parents: Supervision & Customization** - Tara provides a direct guide for parents on how to use Instagram's built-in tools to feel more in control.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Tara Hopkins, who leads policy work for Instagram at Meta, joins Dr. Will Cole for a candid conversation about raising teenagers in the social media era. They cover Instagram's Teen Accounts feature — the default restrictions on contact, content, and time — the AI tools Meta uses to detect teens who lie about their age, and the supervision tools available to parents. Tara shares her honest take on outright social media bans, why she believes a parent-guided gradual approach works better than a hard cutoff, and practical parenting wisdom from raising her own two teenagers, including why it's okay to tighten boundaries later and how to use the algorithm reset tool. For all links mentioned in this episode, visit www.drwillcole.com/podcast.


This episode was recorded prior to Meta's agreement with a bipartisan group of 52 attorneys general across US states, territories, and the District of Columbia, building on their longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens. Learn more at https://about.fb.com/news/2026/08/agreement-with-state-attorneys-general-supporting-teens/


Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.


Produced by Dear Media.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Art of Being Well

More from this podcast

The Art of Being Well →