Meta releases parental supervision features on Threads to protect teenagers

Meta has announced it will introduce parental supervision features on Threads to help guardians monitor the digital activity of teenage users on the social media platform. Through the feature, parents can view their child’s Threads usage duration over the past week, set daily time limits, manage sleep mode, and adjust various privacy settings via the Family Center. The feature arrives amid increasing pressure from governments worldwide for technology companies to strengthen protections for young users online. The company is also still facing several lawsuits related to child safety on social media. With the feature, parents can monitor how long their child uses Threads each day over the past seven days, including the average daily usage time for the week. If a teenager accesses Threads on multiple devices simultaneously, such as a phone and a laptop, the time limit will apply to the accumulated usage across all devices. Additionally, parents can restrict or block their child’s access to Threads at night. Threads has already activated a built-in feature that mutes notifications and auto-replies for all teenage users from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Meta explained that teenage accounts on Threads are currently equipped with several automatically active protections, such as private accounts by default and restrictions on the types of content displayed. Meta stated that the parental supervision feature for Threads will begin rolling out in the United States next week, with the company targeting global availability before the end of this year.