Meta is adding new tools for parental supervision on Messenger and Instagram as well as some new notifications to help limit overuse of the service, especially among younger audiences, and to reduce harm and unwanted attention that might spread across its messaging features.

New parental supervision tools are also coming to Messenger: parents will be able to see how much time their kid spends in the app, who they are contacting, and who can view their teen's messages and Stories.".

The new tools, which will be available through Meta's Family Center, will not enable parents to see their child's actual messages, but it will provide them with more insight into who they're communicating with, and more importantly, who else is reaching their messages.

Parents will also have the ability to receive notifications if the child reports someone, or if their teen changes their messaging settings.

These features provide an added layer of security for parents, allowing them to keep a closer eye on exactly what their kids are doing within the app, which may avoid unwanted attention and perhaps even misuse.

Meta is also launching new tools for Parental Supervision on Instagram, another means of keeping tabs on your child's digital interactions and activity.

New features for Instagram will include letting parents know if a child has blocked someone within the application and oversight into how many shared friends their teenager has with the other accounts they are following and interacting with.
Meta is also testing some new privacy features for messaging on Instagram, including updated permissions for sending direct messages and limits on message requests and invitations.
These updates will fight unwanted messages in the app by giving control to each user about the type of DMs they want to receive.

Lastly, Meta is looking to help younger users better their time management in its apps, adding new alerts any time a user spent 20 minutes within Facebook and prompts them to take time away from the app.
New Facebook 'nudges' will be reminding young users about the time spent in the app and asking them to set up daily limits to avoid overuse.
Meta had added similar nudges on Instagram back in 2021 against concerns that Instagram use could have some harmful impacts especially on younger audiences. Although it's only actual alerts that are new – both Facebook and Instagram have had time limit reminders accessible to users since 2018 so functionally, you've been able to set up these kinds of restrictions for years. But this adds a new type of alert in-stream, which could help raise awareness about the kinds of things.

Meta further reports that it is testing a new notification on Instagram that encourages teens to turn off the app if they are scrolling Reels at night.
These are welcome updates, of course, in light of growing research indicating the risks of social media use for young users, and the effects that social media connectivity can have on more vulnerable users.

Which is also part of the reason why there needs to be caution in the rollout and launch of VR, along with child safeguarding within this better-represented interactive sphere. Meta just announced that it would now allow kids under the age of 13 to use VR, which it has always forbidden, and it is really changes like these that warrant more oversight, especially as damage and peril have been seen in teen social media use.

It is essential that we roll out safety updates retrospectively. We would also recommend that, in order not to be a victim of such risks in the future, we get ahead of them instead of reacting to them later.