SOCIAL MEDIA
Parental Controls for Facebook
A social network of profiles, friends, groups and feed posts, where teens now start in a Teen Account with protective defaults.
THE 30-SECOND OVERVIEW
What You Need to Know About Facebook
Facebook is a social network built around a personal profile, a friends list, groups and a feed of posts, photos and videos. Teen Accounts, first launched on Instagram, now apply to Facebook and Messenger users aged 13 to 17, placing them automatically into protective settings.
A Teen Account limits who can see your teen's posts and who can contact them, and filters age-inappropriate content. As with the other Meta apps, it gives you visibility only once you add supervision, which covers Facebook, Messenger and Instagram together.
SET-UP GUIDANCE
👉 Do This First
Parental controls can feel overwhelming at the start. We recommend setting up these foundations first before anything else.
Set Up a Teen Account With The Right Age
What it does: Confirm the account uses your teen's real age. Posts, stories, reels, friends list and followed pages default to Friends only. Under 16 cannot loosen these without your approval once supervision is on.
Learn more: https://www.facebook.com/help/1105851604342488
Set Up Supervision in the Meta Family Centre
What it does: A parent can set daily limit and sleep mode, approve or deny requests to make settings less protective, and see their teen's Facebook friends, Messenger contacts and who they have blocked. One invite covers Facebook, Messenger and Instagram. Message content stays private.
Learn more: https://familycenter.meta.com/supervision
🛠️ Customise For Your Family
Fine tune what your child can do in the app with these settings. We recommend reviewing these settings periodically and adjusting them to match your child's growth.
Check Visibility and Interaction Settings (Privacy & Safety Settings)
What it does: Teen Accounts limit who can message your teen and who sees their friends list and posts. Review these together and keep them tight; under-16 changes need your approval.
Learn more: https://familycenter.meta.com/our-products/facebook-messenger/
Confirm Content Filtering
What it does: Teen Accounts apply a 13+ content setting that filters more sensitive and offensive material. Confirm it is on, and talk about reporting anything that slips through.
Learn more: https://familycenter.meta.com/our-products/facebook-messenger/
Set a Daily Limit and Sleep Mode (Screen Time)
What it does: Set a daily limit; Sleep Mode turns on automatically between 22:00 and 07:00 to mute notifications, and a reminder nudges your teen to close the app after 60 minutes.
Learn more:
⚠️ What These Controls Won't Do
You see contacts, not conversations. Supervision shows friends and contact lists, not message content. What is said in a chat will not appear in your dashboard.
Groups can still expose your teen. Teens can join public groups where the other members are strangers, and a group's tone can shift after they join.
Things to Watch Out For:
Friend or message requests from people your teen does not know.
Being added to groups full of strangers.
Pressure to move a conversation to another app.
A second account, or sudden secrecy about activity.
LAST UPDATED: JULY 2026
Settings and features change often, so please visit the app's official sources for the latest updates. The links provided are external sources, please note that we do not assume responsibility for the content found on these external links.