COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOIO) A major change to how Meta handles accounts on Instagram has Ohio’s lieutenant governor pushing for more change in the name of protecting minors on social media.

“Finally, they’re changing to help try and protect kids,” said Lt. Governor Jon Husted. “Initially, they said they couldn’t do this; well, clearly, they can do this because they’re promising that this is how they’re going to change their product.”

Meta announced that starting Tuesday, users under 18 would have teen accounts, subject to more restrictions, including parental controls and messaging restrictions.

It is similar to the Social Media Notifications Parental Act, which was set to go into effect at the start of the year, applying to all social media for teens.

It is also something a judge indefinitely blocked a month later and triggered a lawsuit brought by a collection of tech giants.

“They said when we were doing it, it was limiting their freedom of speech, but now they’re doing it, and it’s apparently not a limitation,” said Husted.

When asked about the status of that lawsuit following the changes Meta made, the Lt. Governor said: “I will say that Meta has reached out to me and our team to talk about this and we will ask them to join us in supporting legislation that would require the very same things that they’re doing if they can do it, then why don’t we just say everyone should do it.”

Meta says it will enforce these restrictions using a program to scan user pictures.

Current accounts run by teens will see these restrictions added over the next 60 days.

Husted says this is no time to rest on laurels, and instead push for continued change to protect teens on the web.

“I want to make sure what they’re promising they’re doing, they actually do.”

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