Meta has announced that it has taken new action to protect its users aged 13 to 17. It has launched a series of new nighttime warnings in the form of alerts after users have spent more than 10 minutes scrolling through sections of Instagram, such as Reels or direct messaging, late at night. Teen users can expect to see these nighttime alerts after 10 PM, which will display a black screen asking, "Is it time to take a break? It's late. Consider closing Instagram for the night."
Teenagers cannot disable this feature, but they can simply ignore the message and continue using the app until the early morning hours. It is noteworthy that the nighttime alerts provided by Meta are the latest in a series of monitoring features recently introduced, aimed specifically at addressing long-standing criticisms regarding the harmful psychological effects of social media on users, especially younger ones.
