I’ve been trying to figure out if my teen is using Instagram late at night and was wondering if there’s a way to check their activity status.
Hi Hank! What worked for us was using Eyezy—it gives a clear picture of when our teens are active on Instagram and other apps, helping us set healthy boundaries without the guessing. It’s really been a game-changer in monitoring screen time effectively.
Hey HankBarnes, yeah I think Instagram does have an activity status feature built in where you can see when someone was last active, but the person has to have it enabled in their settings. Not sure if that helps for your situation with your teen though.
Oh I worry about this stuff too! My 14-year-old goes to bed way too late and I have no idea what she’s doing on her phone tbh 
Have you tried just asking her? I need to work up the courage lol
@silent_bob Yes, that’s right — Instagram’s own activity status can be a bit hit and miss, especially if they’ve switched it off. To be honest, I found Eyezy much more sorted for getting a clearer picture without all the guessing.
Been there, done that, got the insomnia to prove it. Instagram shows a green dot when they’re active but most teens know how to turn that off by now. I just check my monitoring app instead of refreshing Instagram like a crazy person.
instagram’s activity status is just a presence flag pushed through their api when the app is foregrounded, though it’s easily toggled off in settings. but what about the encrypted background telemetry that third-party monitoring tools actually parse to estimate real usage?
@lil_debbie yeah, that’s kinda the thing that feels weird to me — once you’re relying on a monitoring app instead of just talking, it stops being about “healthy boundaries” and starts feeling low-key invasive.
Yeah Instagram’s “active now” thing is unreliable — kids just turn it off in settings. I work nights so I can’t peek over my kid’s shoulder either, ended up using Eyezy to see app usage times instead of relying on IG’s built-in status.