Meta has begun rolling out parental supervision on Threads across the Asia-Pacific region, including India, giving parents and guardians greater visibility and control over teenagers’ use of the platform.
The tools, available through Meta’s Family Centre, allow parents to view a teenager’s Threads usage for the previous seven days, set daily time limits, restrict access during specific hours, adjust night-time settings, manage tagging and oversee certain privacy and sensitive-content preferences.
The rollout, announced by Meta in September, builds on the platform’s existing Teen Accounts, which provide protections such as private-by-default accounts and restrictions on the content teens can see.
The move comes amid growing scrutiny of Meta in India over online child safety and the circulation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). In July, the government said it had taken serious note of reports alleging advertisements linked to CSAM on social media and sought a detailed report from the concerned intermediary, while the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) also issued notices.
The NCPCR subsequently began a formal inquiry into alleged lapses in Meta India’s child-safety policies and summoned Meta India executives. In September, Meta agreed to report child-safety cases directly to India’s cybercrime authorities through the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), rather than relying solely on the previous reporting route through the US-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Meta said, “protecting children on our platforms is a priority” and that it was committed to working with the government to ensure perpetrators are held responsible.
More Control For Parents
Under the new Threads supervision system, parents can view how much time their teenager has spent on the platform each day over the previous week, along with the average daily usage. They can set a daily limit and block Threads during selected days or hours. If a teenager accesses Threads on multiple devices, the time limit applies to their total usage rather than separately on each device.
Parents can also adjust Threads’ sleep mode, including limiting or blocking access at night. Meta says notifications are muted and auto-replies are enabled by default between 10 pm and 7 am under sleep mode. Parents can additionally control who can tag their teenager and manage or approve certain privacy settings and sensitive-content preferences.
The controls are being introduced alongside Threads’ existing Teen Accounts. Meta says parents can decide whether teenagers under 16 can make some of the platform’s default protections less restrictive. The company has described the supervision tools as an extension of safeguards already built into Teen Accounts, rather than a replacement for its existing moderation systems.
Scrutiny Over Child Safety
The India rollout comes against the backdrop of a wider dispute over how social-media platforms detect, remove and report material involving child sexual exploitation. In July, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the government had taken serious note of reports concerning advertisements allegedly linked to CSAM on social-media platforms and sought detailed information from the concerned intermediary. The PIB statement also noted that NCPCR had issued notices to the platforms involved.
The NCPCR later instituted a formal inquiry into alleged shortcomings in Meta India’s child-safety policies and its handling of CSAM-related material. Meta India Managing Director Arun Srinivas was summoned by the child-rights body as part of the proceedings. Reports said the inquiry followed concerns over Meta’s response to the allegations.
The issue subsequently led to a change in Meta’s reporting arrangement in India. Business Standard reported that Meta agreed to share child sexual abuse cases and details of repeat offenders directly with Indian law-enforcement agencies through the I4C cybercrime division. Government officials said such information could include account details such as names, associated email IDs and IP addresses, which they argued could assist investigations.
The government has also indicated that it expects greater accountability from major platforms. Government sources cited by Business Standard said Meta could not be viewed simply as an intermediary because its algorithms influence what content is amplified and made visible to users.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Children’s safety online cannot rest on one setting, one app or one technology. Meta’s parental supervision tools can give families greater visibility and help parents establish healthier boundaries around screen time, privacy and online interactions. At the same time, parental controls should complement — not substitute — the responsibility of platforms to detect harmful material, act swiftly on reports and cooperate transparently with authorities.
The recent scrutiny in India also highlights why child safety requires cooperation between parents, technology companies, regulators, child-rights bodies and law-enforcement agencies. Parents need practical tools, teenagers need age-appropriate protection and platforms need systems that respond effectively when those safeguards fail.
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