Threads rolls out parental supervision tools

Meta is bringing parental supervision tools to Threads, the company announced on Tuesday. With the new tools, parents and guardians will be able to view their teen’s time spent on Threads, set daily time limits, adjust sleep mode, and manage their privacy settings through Family Center, Meta’s hub for parental controls across its apps.

The rollout follows growing pressure on Meta from regulators and lawmakers to better protect young users online. The company has spent the last several years expanding parental controls across its apps in response to concerns over excessive screen time, harmful content, and teen safety, and is now bringing similar controls to Threads. It’s also worth noting that Meta, alongside other social media giants, is currently facing numerous lawsuits related to child safety.

Given these factors, it’s not surprising that Meta is finally introducing parental supervision tools to Threads, a platform with 500 million monthly users. The rollout comes three years after Threads’ launch in July 2023.

Parents and guardians will now be able to view how much time their teen spent on the platform each day for the past week, including their average daily time spent for the week. They will also be able to set a daily time limit and block access during select days and hours. If a teen uses Threads across multiple devices, like their phone and laptop, the time limit will apply to the total time spent using Threads.

Additionally, parents can limit or block their teen’s access to Threads at night, with notifications muted and auto-replies already on by default for all teens from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Parents also have the option to control who can tag their teen in posts on the platform.

Meta notes that teens on Threads already have built-in protections like private accounts and limits on the content they see. However, parents can now decide if teens under 16 can change any of these automatic settings to be less strict, the company says.

The parental supervision controls are rolling out next week in the U.S. Meta is planning to bring parental supervision on Threads globally by the end of the year, a spokesperson told TechCrunch.