Meta has launched Digital Dialogueue IRL in Singapore, a public installation designed to support conversations about online safety and digital wellbeing.
The free interactive experience at Temasek Shophouse is aimed at teens, parents, educators and community stakeholders. Using visual conversation cards, guided prompts and interactive touchpoints, it explores issues including screen time, social comparison, feed control, peer pressure, cyberbullying and the boundaries between online and offline life.
The launch coincides with the rollout in Singapore of Teen Accounts 13+ content settings across Instagram, Facebook and Messenger. Meta said the settings restrict sensitive content for younger users and cannot be changed without a parent's permission.
Meta tied the initiative to findings from pilot workshops in two Singapore secondary schools. In those sessions, 304 students took part in discussions on digital wellbeing and online identity through visual storytelling and guided conversation.
According to the pilot data, students who joined the workshop were 19 percentage points more likely to say they understood the safety tools on their Instagram Teen Account. Familiarity with those tools rose from 52% before the sessions to 71% afterwards.
Other results pointed to wider classroom effects. Some 69% of students agreed the sessions enabled honest, open conversations about social media, while 72% of educators in the post-programme survey said the illustrations helped students engage with complex topics.
Another 61% of educators said they intended to use the Digital Dialogueue resource in future teaching. The research was based on pre-survey responses from 304 students and post-survey responses from 236 students across both schools, along with feedback from 18 educators.
Policy focus
The initiative brings together platform policy, classroom discussion and family engagement at a time of heightened scrutiny over teen social media use. Technology companies and policymakers in many markets face pressure to show how product settings and education efforts can address concerns about harmful content, online pressure and excessive screen time.
Rahayu Mahzam, Minister of State for Digital Development and Information and Health, framed the issue as a shared responsibility across sectors.
"Keeping young people safe online is not something any one party can do alone. It requires government, industry, schools, and families working together. What I find encouraging about initiatives like Digital Dialogueue IRL is that they help young people develop their own judgement through honest conversations with the trusted adults in their lives. This is the kind of collaboration we need as we build a safer, more discerning digital society," said Rahayu Mahzam, Minister of State, Ministry of Digital Development and Information and Ministry of Health, Singapore.
For Meta, the Singapore project also serves as a local demonstration of how its safety settings are intended to work in practice. Rather than focusing only on product controls, it is positioning those controls within conversations between teenagers and adults.
"Digital Dialogueue IRL, developed in support of the national Digital for Life movement, creates an engaging space where teens, parents and educators can talk openly about real digital experiences, better understand the safety tools available to them, and build healthier habits together. When strong platform protections - including the new 13+ content settings we recently introduced - are paired with open family conversations, that's when digital safety works best," said Clara Koh, Director of Public Policy, Central Southeast Asia and ASEAN, Meta.
School feedback
Feedback from schools suggested the discussion format may help students address topics that can be difficult to raise in more formal settings. The workshops were built around illustrations and scenarios designed to make digital habits and social media behaviour easier to discuss.
"Digital Dialogueue created a safe and engaging space for our Secondary One students to openly discuss their online experiences and reflect on their digital habits. The illustration-led approach made conversations around social media and wellbeing feel relatable, thoughtful, and highly relevant to our students," said Premlatha D/O Selvaraj, vice-principal, secondary school, MOE.
The public installation also includes contributions from figures outside education and government. Lee Kai Yang, captain of the Singapore Men's National Water Polo Team, linked the exhibit's themes to pressure, comparison and recovery in sport and online life.
"As an athlete, I've learnt that what's going on in your head matters as much as what happens in the pool - staying focused, not measuring yourself against everyone else, and knowing when to switch off and recover. The same habits matter online. It helps that Instagram Teen Accounts take some of that pressure off automatically, so young people can spend less energy managing their feeds and more just being present. I hope everyone who comes through Digital Dialogueue IRL leaves knowing it's okay to set boundaries, take a break, and look out for one another - in the pool, in the group chat, everywhere," said Yang.