Meta has expanded its Family Center with additional features dedicated to helping parents to monitor and manage their teenage children’s activities on Messenger, which is also shared by Instagram. The company made this known in a blog post on Tuesday, revealing that the initial rollout is available to users in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
Adam Mosseri also confirmed this in an Instagram video, explaining that the company wants to make sure its apps are as supportive as possible for teens, “which means involving parents and guardians more in their teens’ experiences, and offering teens controls to help ensure the time they’re spending on Instagram is meaningful.”
The introduction of this set of parental tools aligns with Meta’s ongoing commitment to “Helping families build positive online habits” across its platforms. In addition to enhancing the Family Center, Meta has implemented various features designed to protect kids from harassment, abuse, and bullying.
To access the new parental controls for Messenger, parents, and guardians can visit the Meta Family Center, a dedicated landing page that provides a comprehensive suite of tools for overseeing their teen’s online interactions. Within the Family Center, parents can view their child’s Messenger contacts and safety settings while also having the ability to set up alerts for any modifications to these settings.
The following are specific settings parents can perform through the Family Center:
- Monitoring Messenger Usage: Parents gain visibility and control over how their teenage children use the Messenger app. While they cannot view the content of messages, they can oversee the overall usage patterns.
- Time Management: Parents can monitor the amount of time their child spends on Messenger, granting them insights into their online habits and allowing for healthy digital boundaries to be established.
- Privacy and Safety Settings: Parents and guardians are empowered to review and adjust their child’s privacy and safety settings on Messenger. This ensures that the settings align with the family’s values and expectations.
- Message and Story Permissions: Through parental control tools, parents can manage who can message their child and who can view their stories. This feature enhances the overall safety and privacy of their teenage children’s online experiences.
- Notifications and Reporting: Parents can opt to receive notifications whenever their child’s contact list changes or if there are alterations to privacy and safety settings. Additionally, if their child reports another user to Meta, parents can be notified if their teenager decides to share this information.
While these new parental control tools focus on the Messenger app, it is worth noting that Facebook has long provided parental controls for Messenger Kids, a version specifically designed for younger children. The tools announced now cater to parents with teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 who use the main Messenger app.
Facebook has made it clear that the current set of parental supervision tools is just the beginning. The company plans to introduce more features and enhancements to the Family Center over the next year. While the initial rollout is limited to users in the US, UK, and Canada, Meta intends to expand the availability of these tools to other regions worldwide in the coming months.
On Instagram, Meta is exploring the introduction of a nudge feature that prompts teens to close the app if they have been scrolling through Reels late at night. Parental controls for Instagram have also been enhanced. Parents can now see the number of mutual friends their teen has with the accounts they follow or are followed by.
Furthermore, after blocking someone, teens receive a notification encouraging them to add their parents as supervisors to oversee their account. Teens are also notified about the option to grant their guardians access to supervise their Instagram accounts for added protection.