About supervision for teens at Meta
Supervision is a set of tools and insights that parents and guardians can use to help support their teens (ages 13-17, or 14-17 in some regions) on Meta technologies like Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Meta Horizon, Threads and the Meta AI app.
Parents or guardians can use Family Center to supervise their teen’s profile on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Meta Horizon, Threads or Meta AI even if they only have a profile on one of these apps. Parents can also set up supervision for their teen’s profiles across these apps at one time.
Learn more about what setting up supervision allows you to do on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Meta Horizon, Threads and Meta AI.
Supervision is optional for teens, and both the parent and the teen must agree to participate. It can be removed at any time by either person. The other person will be notified if one of the people removes supervision.
Supervision is also automatically set up for parents who manage a child’s Meta Horizon profile. These profiles are for people ages 10-12 (age may vary by region).
See below for supervision features available by app:
When supervision is set up, parents and guardians can:
- See how much time their teen has spent on Facebook each day for the last week, and their average daily time spent for the week.
- Set up sleep mode to limit their teen’s use of Facebook during select days and hours.
- Set up daily limit to limit how long their teen uses Facebook in a day. Parents can choose whether their teen sees a reminder to close the app, or is blocked from using Facebook.
- See their teen’s Facebook friends.
- Manage and approve some of their teen’s privacy settings and sensitive content preferences.
- See the people and Pages their teen has blocked.
- View and adjust their teen’s audience settings, including:
- Who can see their future posts, stories or reels.
- Who can see their friends list.
- Who can see the people, Pages and lists they follow.
- Who can see posts they’re tagged in on their profile.
- Who can comment on their public posts.
- Whether anyone can remix their future public reels.
- Whether they must review posts they’re tagged in before the post appears on their profile.
- View and adjust some of their teen’s profile details settings, including who can see their phone number, email address and other info like their birthday.
Connecting with a supervised user
When you interact with a supervised profile, their parent or guardian can see some of your activity and information. This can include information, like your username, profile picture and if the supervised user blocked you. The supervised user can let their parent or guardian know if they reported you.
When supervision is set up, parents and guardians can:
- See the average amount of time their teen has spent on Instagram across all devices over the past 7 days.
- See insights about what topics their teen asked Meta AI about in the last 7 days.
- Set a time limit for how long their teen can use Instagram. If Instagram is used on multiple devices, time limits apply to the total time spent using Instagram. Parents can choose whether their teen sees a reminder to close the app, or is blocked from using Instagram after reaching the time limit.
- Set up sleep mode to limit their teen’s use of Instagram during select days and hours. If Instagram is used on multiple devices, sleep mode applies to Instagram access across all devices. Parents can choose whether their teen sees a reminder to close the app, or is blocked from using Instagram during sleep mode.
- See how much time their teen has spent on Instagram across all devices for each specific day over the past 7 days.
- See which accounts their teen is following.
- See which accounts are following their teen.
- See which accounts their teen is currently blocking.
- See their teen’s account privacy setting.
- See their teen’s setting for who can send them message requests.
- See their teen’s setting for who can add them to a group chat.
- See their teen’s sensitive content setting.
While not currently available with supervision, teens can add a school to their profile after completing a verification process. Verified students can see other students at the same school. In certain regions, they can create and join school chats. Depending on their age and privacy settings, students can also see and add to their school story.
Connecting with a supervised user
When you interact with a supervised profile, their parent or guardian can see some of your activity and information. This can include information, like your username, profile picture and if the supervised user blocked you. The supervised user can let their parent or guardian know if they reported you.
When supervision is set up, parents and guardians can:
- See how much time their teen has spent on Messenger for the last week, and their average daily time spent for the week.
- See insights about what topics their teen asked Meta AI about in the last 7 days.
- Set daily time limits for how much time their teen can spend on Messenger.
- Set scheduled breaks from the app for their teen.
- See contacts your teen has added, including Facebook friends, Messenger connections and AIs they’ve chatted with.
- Set their teen’s settings for who can send them message requests.
- Set their teen’s settings for story controls.
Parents will be notified in Family Center, or by push notification if enabled, if their teen changes any of these settings.
With supervision set up, a teen can:
- See a preview of what the parent sees while supervising.
- Choose to notify their parent after reporting something on Messenger. Parents will be able to see the report type selected.
Connecting with a supervised user
When you interact with a supervised profile, their parent or guardian can see some of your activity and information. This can include information, like your username, profile picture and if the supervised user blocked you. The supervised user can let their parent or guardian know if they reported you.
When supervision is set up, parents and guardians can:
- See their teen's activity on Meta Quest and Meta Horizon and adjust parental supervision settings.
- Set daily time limits for how long their teen can use Meta Quest and the Meta Horizon mobile app.
- Set scheduled breaks from the headset for their teen.
- Block or allow their teen's access to apps based on age rating.
- Review and respond to their teen's requests to access blocked apps.
- Block their teen's access to developer mode, which includes loading and using apps from a connected device or computer.
- Manage their notification settings for parental supervision.
Connecting with a supervised user
When you interact with a supervised profile, their parent or guardian can see some of your activity and information. This can include information, like your username, profile picture and if the supervised user blocked you. The supervised user can let their parent or guardian know if they reported you.
When supervision is set up, parents and guardians can:
- See how much time their teen has spent on Threads each day for the last week, and their average daily time spent for the week.
- Set a time limit for how long their teen can use Threads. If Threads is used on multiple devices, time limits apply to the total time spent using Threads. Parents can choose whether their teen sees a reminder to close the app, or is blocked from using Threads after reaching the time limit.
- Approve or decline their teen's requests for more time or for a different daily time limit.
- Set up sleep mode to limit their teen’s use of Threads during select days and hours. If Threads is used on multiple devices, sleep mode applies to Threads access across all devices. Parents can choose whether their teen sees a reminder to close the app, or is blocked from using Threads during sleep mode.
- Manage and approve some of their teen’s privacy settings and sensitive content preferences.
- See who their teen follows, who follows them and who they've blocked. Parents and guardians can also get a weekly notification when their teen has new followers or follows profiles.
When supervision is setup, parents and guardians can:
- Limit the types of conversations their teen can have with the Meta AI assistant on the Meta AI app or website.
- See insights into the general topics their teen talks about with Meta AI. They won’t see the direct conversations their teen has with Meta AI.
Parents will be notified in Family Center, or by push notification if enabled, if their teen requests to change their conversation setting.
With supervision setup, a teen can:
- See a preview of what the parent sees while supervising.
It's important that your supervisor is your parent or guardian, because they will be given controls and insights into your activity to help keep you safe. You can remove supervision at any time.