Car Cruising Crooner Usher & His Sons Nayvid…
“It’s seven o’clock on the dot,” and Usher’s cruising into a much-needed Carversation with his sons.
Source: Paras Griffin / Getty
Instagram has launched Carversations, a new video sequence designed to help dad and mom and teenagers deal with powerful convos about social media, security, and screen time, all from the place where households often converse most freely: the car. The sequence premiered with an appropriately ATL-rooted headliner, Usher, who pulls up with his teen sons, Cinco, 18, and Naviyd, 16, for a candid cruise through the complexities of growing up online.
“This is Meta’s way of helping make conversations about technology a little more fluid,” said Kristin Hendrix, Meta’s VP of Strategic Partnerships for Trust & Safety, to BOSSIP at the Atlanta launch. “These conversations aren’t easy, but there’s something about being in a car — looking forward, moving together — that makes it easier to talk about screens, boundaries, and growing up.”
The alternative of Usher was no coincidence. As Hendrix put it, the R&B icon is a uncommon “generational unifier,” equally acquainted to teenagers discovering him through Reels and dad and mom who got here of age during Confessions and 8701.
“Young folks know him. People from my generation know him,” she said. “And he’s parenting teens himself. That relatability matters.”
Source: Carversations / Instagram
In the debut episode, Usher trades the stage for the steering wheel, opening up about how Instagram’s Teen Accounts characteristic helps him defend his sons online.
Launched in September 2024 and up to date this fall, Teen Accounts robotically place teenagers into age-appropriate settings, including non-public profiles and content restrictions.
“I don’t want my kid to see something I didn’t choose to allow them to see,” Usher says in the episode. “It gives us peace of mind.”
When requested what else dad and mom ought to know about social media, Kristin Hendrix additional highlighted Instagram’s suite of teen-focused security options.
“We have a characteristic called Teen Settings, like non-public by default, which we launched in September 2024,” she said, including that an October update additional refined Teen Accounts to focus on age-appropriate content.
“In addition to Teen Accounts, we’ve offered features under this parent supervision umbrella for a few years now, where parents can link their accounts to their teens to see, for example, how much time they’re spending online and what they’re looking at,” Hendrix explained, emphasizing that these instruments are designed to foster informed, open conversations between dad and mom and teenagers. I believe having those conversations about security and boundaries is integral. Really important.”
The dialog flows and is crammed with equal elements fatherly steering and playful pushback as Usher and his sons debate screen time limits, DMs, and who actually runs Instagram the toughest in the Raymond family. Cinco and Naviyd tease their dad about the Reels he sends, while Usher reminds them that he can see their usage stats, thanks to parental supervision instruments.
Source: Carversations / Instagram
The episode also turns reflective when the singer contrasts his own come-up with his sons’ digital-first actuality. While Usher once had to sing exterior nightclubs hoping to be found, today’s teenagers can DM producers, post music, and construct neighborhood with a faucet.
“Y’all got Instagram,” Usher says with a snigger. “You don’t need to go to a record company to ask for approval to be an artist.”
He expanded on that level while having fun with some father-son banter at the Atlanta Carversations launch, during a Kenny Burns-hosted dialog.
Source: Carversations / Instagram
Source: Carversations / Instagram
That mix of humor, honesty, and hindsight is precisely what Carversations goals to highlight.
Each episode will characteristic a well-known mum or dad and their teen (or teenagers) sharing unfiltered reflections on creativity, connection, and the challenges of navigating an always-online world — without pressured eye contact or formal sit-downs.
Source: Carversations / Instagram
“Parenting is hands down the hardest job in the world,” Kristin Hendrix said to BOSSIP. “We hope families take comfort in knowing they’re not alone. It’s hard for everybody.”
Speaking of issue, Usher opened up with a personal parenting anecdote about knowledge he’s shared with his sons.
“One of the harder conversations I’ve had with my kids is about appealing to others and how they don’t define you. Who you are is defined by your decisions, your commitment,” said the dad who encourages his boys to discover one thing they’re “obsessed with” that they will do to the best of their skill.
Source: Carversations / Instagram
At another level in the dialogue, he recalled a dialog about death he had with his boys after the tragic passing of their brother, Kile Glover, at 11 years previous in a boating accident.
The Grammy-winner used the second to reward his late stepson as an “Alpha kid” whose presence influenced his brothers.
“Now you think about how precious life is, I think we celebrate more and more as we celebrate him. I know that he [Nayvid] is the artist that he is because of Kile,” said Usher. “Kile was active, man. He was online filming himself—we were trying to slow him down, but it was so good. Now that he’s gone, when I see him singing [Nayvid] and see him [Cinco] being an artist, those seeds were planted through Kile. Kids are forced to live within the shadow of their parents, but to know that their sibling is the reason why they do some of the things they do—I would go back to that time and just celebrate him. I loved him,” he added.
Carversations streams on Instagram’s flagship @instagram account and Instagram’s YouTube channel, with more episodes and acquainted faces who are all about teen security, set to premiere soon.
As Kristin Hendrix teased to BOSSIP, there’s “more to come, [so] keep tuned.”
The post Car Cruising Crooner Usher & His Sons Nayvid & Cinco Kick Off Meta’s CARversations Series Centering Teen Safety, Screen Time & Social Media [Exclusive] appeared first on GWN.
