Parental supervision feature arrives on Threads in India: From time limits to sleep mode—what controls will parents get?

Mark Zuckerberg's company, Meta, is rolling out parental supervision features for Threads in the Asia-Pacific region, including India. These features provide parents and guardians with new tools to understand their teenagers' social media usage and manage specific settings. This update comes amidst growing global discourse regarding online child safety.

Under the new update, parents can access Threads supervision tools via the Family Center. Once supervision is set up, they can view how much time their teenager spent on Threads each day over the past week, as well as the average daily time spent on the platform.

**Setting Daily Usage Time Limits**
Meta is now enabling parents to set daily time limits for Threads, allowing them to determine exactly how long their teenager can use the app each day.

Parents can also block access to Threads during specific days and hours. If a teenager uses Threads on multiple devices, the set time limit applies to the total usage time across all those devices.

**Limiting Threads Usage at Night**
The new parental supervision tools include controls for "Sleep Mode." Parents can now limit or completely block Threads usage during nighttime hours.

By default, notifications are muted, and auto-replies are enabled between 10 PM and 7 AM, though parents can adjust these Sleep Mode settings according to their needs.

**Control Over Tagging and Privacy Settings**
Parents can also manage who is permitted to tag their teenager in Threads posts. Additionally, the features allow them to manage and approve certain privacy settings and sensitive content preferences. This gives parents the option to control key safety and privacy settings linked to their teenager's Threads account, rather than simply monitoring screen time.

What changes have been made for teenagers under 16?
Meta states that Threads accounts for teens already feature several built-in protections. These include private account settings and limits on the content shown to teenagers.

According to the company, the new parental supervision tools will allow parents to decide whether teenagers under 16 can independently change certain safety settings to make them less strict.

Why is this new update significant for Indian parents?

In India, there has been ongoing discussion regarding the accountability of social media companies concerning online child safety. Recently, Meta agreed to directly report child safety-related issues—including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM)—to India's cybercrime portal. This development followed a government investigation into alleged CSAM-related advertisements on Instagram.

The company has also faced scrutiny regarding child safety measures on its platforms. Against this backdrop, the expansion of parental supervision tools on Threads represents a new step by Meta to give parents greater control over their teenagers' social media usage.

Disclaimer: This content has been sourced and edited from Amar Ujala. While we modified it for clarity and presentation, the original content belongs to its respective authors and website. We do not claim ownership of the content.