Meta is introducing parental supervision tools to Threads, giving parents and guardians the ability to monitor teenagers' use of the platform and set restrictions through Family Center, Meta's existing hub for parental controls across its apps. The move comes amid sustained pressure from regulators, lawmakers and ongoing lawsuits over child safety on social media, and brings Threads in line with controls already present on other Meta platforms, three years after the app's launch in July 2023.

The new features let parents view how much time their teen has spent on Threads each day over the past week, including a weekly average, and set daily time limits that apply across devices, as well as block access during specific days and hours. Parents can also restrict night-time use, with notifications muted and auto-replies switched on by default for all teens between 10pm and 7am, and can control who is able to tag their teen in posts. While teen accounts already carry built-in protections such as private profiles and restricted content, parents will now be able to decide whether under-16s can loosen these default settings. The tools begin rolling out in the US next week, with global availability planned by the end of the year.