Meta reiterates safety features for teens, introduces Nighttime Nudges

State legislators are targeting issues this Legislative Session, including a ban on social media use for teens in HB 1.

This bill would prohibit minors from creating new accounts and use age verification methods to verify the ages of account holders.

While legislators are focused on passing this controversial bill, Meta reminds parents of tools to support teens online. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, also introduced a new feature on Instagram to help teens balance their online activity and foster healthy sleeping habits.

Meta is offering a new “Nighttime Nudges” feature to help teens manage their time on Instagram at night.

Nighttime Nudges will appear on a teens’ Instagram screen when they have spent more than 10 minutes on the platform at night. This notification will remind teens it is late and encourage them to close the app.

The Nighttime Nudge is only one of 30+ tools Meta has introduced to help teens develop a healthy relationship with social media.

Meta’s Parental Supervision tool lets parents set daily time limits or schedule breaks so that teens cannot use the app during specific times during the day. The company has also developed tools to help teens take time away from the app to spend with family and friends.

The Take a Break tool allows parents and teens to set time limits on an account, triggering a full-screen reminder when users should “Take a Break” from the app.

To help teens focus and set boundaries with their social media accounts, the Quiet Mode feature on Instagram will prevent the platform from sharing notifications when turned on.

Meta encourages parents to have open conversations with their teens about their activity on social media.