Meta joined parents in Miami earlier this week for the first-ever bilingual edition of Screen Smart, the company’s hands-on workshop series for parents navigating their teens’ lives online. Miami’s Screen Smart event marked the first time the program was offered in both English and Spanish.
“Screen Smart: Familias Conectadas” (Connected Families) brought together parents, creators, clinical experts, local leaders and Meta leadership for an afternoon centered on a question familiar to households across South Florida: How do you set boundaries around screens without shutting down the conversation?
Miami has been part of Screen Smart since the program’s inception, with the consistent goal of providing one-on-one, hands-on educational workshops for parents on the company’s supervision features, as well as sessions with academics and clinicians on ways to support teens’ online experiences.
The centerpiece was a fireside chat between Miami parenting creator Elayna Fernandez, known to her audience as @thepositivemom, and Jessica Rodríguez of Univision’s “Despierta América” — two prominent voices in South Florida. Attendees also worked through hands-on demonstrations of Meta’s safety features and previewed new Screen Smart content ahead of its public release.
“Parents in Miami told us they want practical help, not a lecture,” said Meta spokesperson Alex Burgos. “That’s what ‘Familias Conectadas’ is all about. We built these tools to help parents feel more confident navigating the digital world and setting the boundaries that work best for their families. Events like this help connect families with resources they can use right away.”
The workshop model reflects a point Meta has emphasized since the series launched: Parental controls only help if parents know how to use them. Parenting online, the company has said, is also about building trust with families around how they’re using devices, helping teens navigate platforms and approaching conversations about digital safety.
In May, Meta consolidated parental controls across Instagram, Meta Horizon, Facebook and Messenger into a single Family Center hub, allowing parents to manage a teen’s settings in one place rather than switching between apps. Parents can also now view the general topics shaping their teens’ Instagram algorithm, providing a window into what teens are seeing and a starting point for more informed conversations at home.
Families appear to be responding. Meta says the number of U.S. teens enrolled in supervision on Instagram has more than doubled in the past year. The company has developed more than 50 tools, resources and features aimed at helping teens use its apps in safe, age-appropriate ways, including automatic privacy settings and contact limits built into Teen Accounts.