Meta Rolls Out New Parental Control Features on Instagram, Messenger

To help parents and teens manage the time they spend on Messenger and Instagram and provide a safer online space for children, Facebook parent company Meta introduced parental supervision tools for the said applications.

The new tools for Messenger allow parents to see how their children use the app. This includes seeing how much time they spend on it, getting updated on changes to their contact lists and if they report someone, and viewing who can see their stories.

“Over the next year, we’ll add more features to Parental Supervision on Messenger so parents can help their teens better manage their time and interactions, while still balancing their privacy as these tools function in both unencrypted and end-to-end encrypted chats,” said Meta.

So far, these parental controls are available in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. Meta plans to extend these to more countries in a few months.

In addition to restricting people over 19 years old to message underage users who do not follow them, Meta introduced a safety notice that will let teens allow their parents to supervise their Instagram account. This will enable parents to see their child’s followers and mutuals with other accounts.

Meta also said its “Take a Break” feature on Instagram, which encourages teens to take time away from the app after some usage, will be available on Facebook. They are also testing new features for Instagram, such as limiting connections and message requests.

According to Meta, the new updates are part of their efforts to establish Family Center as an effective tool to help parents manage their teens’ experiences using Meta’s technologies.