Instagram to Test Feature That Locks Your Account From Harassment

Instagram wants to curb bullying and harassment on its platform by testing out a new feature called “Limits.” 

Instagram CEO Adam Grossi mentioned the social network is testing this new feature during an Instagram Live on Thursday. Grossi said that the feature would essentially lock down your account when you are in a moment of risk, so you can’t have any type of interaction with anyone. 

If you become a target of harassment, the feature will let you suspend your account for a bit, so you don’t get any unwanted comments or DMs. 

“We know that people sometimes are in temporary moments of real risk and pain, and we need to give them tools to protect themselves in those situations,” Grossi said during his Live. 

Grossi did not mention when and where the Limits test would roll out, only that the platform would share more in the coming months. 

Lifewire reached out to Instagram to find out more about how the Limits feature will be tested, and will update this story when details become available.

Grossi’s Live comes just a few days after Instagram announced a different kind of limiting feature on content control. On Tuesday, the platform introduced the Sensitive Content Control feature, which lets users decide how much or how little sensitive content they prefer to see on their feed.

If you choose to set the control feature to "allow," you may end up seeing more photos and videos that could be considered upsetting or offensive to you. The default setting is "limit," which shows only some offensive content, and there's also an option to tighten controls even further so you see even less of that in your feed.