Meta has announced the launch of some new parental control tools designed to aid in protecting the mental health of teenage Instagram users.

The new tools allow parents to set a daily time limit of between 15-minutes and 2 hours, after which a black screen blocks access to the app.

Invites to enable parental control can now be sent by parents, whereas previously it would have to be initiated by the child.

Parents will also be able to schedule break times, as well as has having access to the data if a child reports another Instagram account.

There's another feature, called "nudge", which is being trialled at the moment. The nudge feature will prompt younger users to check out some different subjects, in the event that they keep searching for the same thing.

In addition to Instagram, Meta is also rolling out a parental dashboard on its Quest VR headsets.

The VR tools include the ability to require purchase approval, block specific apps, manage screen time and view the teen's friend list.

Some parental tools were already available to US Instagram users, and these additions are now available to those users, too.

Outside of the US, the tools begin rolling out this month to users in the UK, Japan, Australia, Ireland, Canada, France and Germany. Meta plans to expand this to all users globally by the end of the year.