Meta has launched Digital Dialogue In Real Life (IRL), a free interactive experience at Temasek Shophouse available for teens, parents, and educators to have practical conversations about online safety and social media habits.

Developed in partnership with EYEYAH!, a Singapore illustration studio, Digital Dialogue IRL uses age-appropriate prompts, visual conversation cards, and guided tips and reflection to support conversations that can continue at home, in schools, and within the wider community.

The dialogue space is a follow up to Meta’s Teen Accounts, a default content setting rolled out earlier this year in Singapore for young users aged 13 and above across Instagram, Facebook and Messenger.

“It’s really important to remember that on Teen Accounts, there’s nothing for teenagers to turn on and nothing for parents to do —it is on by default,” said Clara Koh, Director of Public Policy, Central Southeast Asia and ASEAN at Meta. “When we rolled this out around the world, nine out of ten kids have stayed in these restrictive settings.

“But I think we are all here together because we know that tools alone are not going to be important [enough]. We need to support young people and the trusted adults in their lives to have honest and open conversations about their online experiences.This is why we’ve created Digital Dialogue In Real Life.”

The experience will focus on topics such as screen time, social comparison, feed control, peer pressure, cyberbullying and healthy online-offline boundaries, and tie in with tools provided on their services like Teen Accounts. It is open to the public from 25 June to 31 July this year.

It takes a village to raise a child

During the launch of Digital Dialogue IRL, Meta moderated a panel discussion on how schools and communities can empower youth through interactive conversation. One of the panellists, Rahayu Mahzam, Minister of State at the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI), emphasised that keeping individuals safe online requires a “whole of society effort” from government, industry, schools and families. 

She believes that safety starts with building basic digital literacy skills like knowing the function of algorithms and how it impacts exposure to content on social media, as well as how mechanisms are available to block out unwanted content.

“They need to understand the space, to know the tools, to know how things work because that’s quite important in safeguarding the experience,” she said.

While she was heartened to see tech platforms like Meta placing guardrails, she understands that the issue is a complex one that requires input from community partners and the government.

“It’s also important to set the legislative and regulatory flow because someone needs to police this, to take a good look at whether these things are being adhered to,” she said. “Because we know that you can have all the good practices but there will be loopholes [or] bad actors who take advantage, and there may be people harmed in this process.”

She added that the government is currently working closely with social media platforms to enforce a code of practice as well as age assurance measures in app stores to prevent users younger than 18 from accessing and downloading age-inappropriate apps.

“Now we’re looking at specific features of social media that are of concern and we may want to regulate that further,” she said.“This is another part of the work [where] government works with platforms [and] sets out certain standards that needs to be reached […] These are things that we’re looking at to also strengthen the space and give assurance.”