Youth well-being
It's important that time spent online is meaningful and intentional. Here are tips for teens to ensure social media remains a source of connection, education and inspiration.
Learn about tools that help you control your experiences.
We know you want to be able to control your experience on social media in a way that works for you and supports your well-being. That’s why we’ve rolled out features that let you manage your time, prevent unwanted interactions and control what type of content and accounts you see. Here are some examples of reminders and nudges that are now live.
- Comment reply reminders: In order to avoid comment threads getting too heated, we’re nudging people to take a beat before they reply to a comment that our systems tell us could be potentially offensive.
- ‘Take a Break’ reminders: We now give people on Instagram the option to turn on ‘break reminders’ so they can remind themselves when they’ve spent 10, 20 or 30 minutes on the app in a given visit to the app. When you hit your ‘break reminder,’ you’ll be encouraged to take time off the app.
- Hiding likes: We’re giving everyone on Instagram and Facebook the option to hide like counts on all posts in their feed and like counts on their own posts, so others can’t see how many likes your posts got.
- Time spent controls: Includes a dashboard that shows how much time people have spent on Instagram in the past week, a customizable daily time alert, and a mute push notifications setting to limit notifications.
- Kindness reminders in DM: We’ve rolled out new reminders to be thoughtful and respectful when you go to direct message a creator on Instagram for the first time.
Learn more about the tools available to you across our technologies and how to use them.
If you see something that doesn't sit right, let a trusted adult know. You can also report things that make you feel uncomfortable directly in the app you're using.
Be mindful of how you share.
The more you know about who's seeing your content, the better you'll feel about expressing yourself in creative ways. You can customize your privacy settings to confidently share what you want with the people you want to see it.
Check in with yourself.
The next time you're online for a while, take a minute to assess how you're feeling. If you’re thinking about all the things you want to change (like your hair or wardrobe) consider adjusting the way you interact online instead. You may want to seek out new accounts that better align with your interests.
Strike the right balance.
If you spend too much time scrolling, your time online might not feel as meaningful. Enable in-app features like log-off reminders and notification schedules to monitor, and if necessary trim usage of your preferred platforms.
Be a friend, not just a follower.
If someone you know posts something troubling online, reach out to them and encourage them to get help. Don't assume someone else will step up. It's better to check in than to ignore something that's worrying you.
Extend this same courtesy to yourself. If you find yourself feeling upset or angry over something you've seen online, don't struggle alone. Reach out to a trusted adult or friend, or contact a local helpline for free support.
Explore the "pressure to be perfect" toolkit.
If you're a teen on Instagram, our toolkit is for you. It can help you decode not just the images you see on Instagram, but the emotions around them as well. And you can take short quizzes to assess and discuss what feels right and comfortable when posting.
For parents, there's a complementary guide for understanding teen experiences on Instagram. It includes tips from helping them manage their privacy to balancing screen time. We want to help you better understand the emotional space your teen is operating in and set you up for productive conversations around using the platform.
Get inspired.
Get inspired to use technology to create positive change for yourself and your community. To help get started, we’ve gathered resources to help you visualize your ideal world and think about what steps to take to create it.
