Meta announced in July 2026 that it is rolling out parental supervision tools for Threads, giving parents and guardians new controls over how teens use the platform.
Through Family Center — Meta’s hub for parental controls across its apps — parents will be able to view how much time their teen spent on Threads each day over the past week, including a weekly average. They can set daily time limits that apply across all devices, block access on specific days and hours, and restrict use at night. Notifications are muted and auto-replies are enabled by default for all teens between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., with parents able to adjust those settings. Parents can also control who is allowed to tag their teen in posts.
Teens on Threads already have built-in protections, including private accounts and limits on the content they can see. With the new tools, parents can now decide whether teens under 16 are permitted to loosen any of those automatic settings.
The rollout follows sustained pressure on Meta from regulators and lawmakers to strengthen protections for young users. The company has been expanding parental controls across its apps in response to concerns over screen time, harmful content, and teen safety. Meta is also currently facing multiple lawsuits related to child safety.
Threads, which launched in July 2023, now has 500 million monthly users. The parental supervision controls will begin rolling out in the U.S. next week, with a global expansion planned before the end of the year, according to a Meta spokesperson.
Source: TechCrunch