Meta will roll out parental supervision tools to Threads in the U.S. starting next week, giving parents and guardians visibility into and control over their teens’ use of the app through Family Center.
According to the company’s announcement, the tools let parents view how much time their teen has spent on Threads each day over the past week, including a daily average, set daily time limits, and block access during specific days and hours. If a teen uses Threads across multiple devices, the time limit applies to total usage rather than per device. Parents can also adjust sleep mode, which mutes notifications and turns on auto-replies by default between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., manage who can tag their teen in posts, and approve certain privacy and sensitive content settings.
The features build on existing Teen Accounts protections on Threads, which already default to private accounts and limit the content minors see. With supervision enabled, parents can decide whether a teen under 16 is allowed to loosen any of those default settings. Meta said it will keep expanding supervision tools across its apps so parents can manage them from one place, and plans to bring the Threads controls to a global audience by the end of the year.
The rollout lands shortly after Threads crossed 500 million monthly users. It also arrives as Meta faces sustained legal and regulatory pressure over how its platforms handle minors. In March, a New Mexico jury found Meta liable under the state’s Unfair Practices Act for misleading users about platform safety and ordered the company to pay $375 million, the statutory maximum, after the state argued the company’s design choices exposed minors to adult predators and harmful content, including material related to eating disorders and self-harm. Meta has said it will appeal that verdict. The tech giant and competitors are also contending with additional lawsuits tied to social media addiction among teens.
Meta’s announcement frames the Threads rollout as a continuation of parental controls it has built out across its other apps in recent years, rather than as a response to any specific case.
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
