Meta Adds Parental Supervision Tools to Threads Platform
Meta is introducing parental supervision tools to its social media app, Threads, allowing guardians to monitor teen activity via the central Family Center hub. The update, rolling out next week, enables parents to manage daily time limits, view usage statistics, and restrict content visibility. This expansion arrives amid global regulatory scrutiny regarding child safety and excessive screen time on social media.
Key points
- Meta, the parent company of Threads, announced new parental control features accessible through its centralized Family Center hub.
- Guardians can now monitor their teen's daily time spent on the app, set specific time limits, and configure sleep mode access.
- The tools provide parents the ability to manage privacy settings and restrict visibility of certain tags for teen accounts.
- The rollout follows increasing legal and regulatory pressure on major social media platforms to address concerns over teen safety and harmful content.
- These controls build upon existing safety restrictions already implemented by Meta across its various digital platforms.
Meta has announced that it is integrating parental supervision tools into Threads, the company's text-based social media platform. The features, which will be housed within Meta’s existing Family Center, allow parents and guardians to monitor and manage how their teenage children interact with the service.
Beginning next week, guardians can access data regarding the amount of time teens spend on the application, including historical weekly usage statistics. The tools also grant the authority to set daily usage caps, enforce "sleep mode" hours to restrict access during late-night periods, and adjust privacy settings to limit who can interact with or tag a teen’s account.
This deployment arrives as Meta faces significant pressure from global regulators, lawmakers, and pending litigation concerning the impact of social media on minors. By standardizing these controls, the company aims to address long-standing concerns regarding screen time and exposure to potentially inappropriate content. The update represents the latest step in Meta’s ongoing effort to align its ecosystem with evolving safety standards for younger users.
Sources
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