How To Set Up Parental Controls on Social Media

Social Media – Your Kids Can’t Live Without It

Photo by dole777 on Unsplash

One thing I’ll be forever grateful for is that social media didn’t exist when I was a teen. Think back to those days, now imagine how embarrassing it would be to have those years documented forever on the internet until the end of time. Do you know how many times I called the teacher “mom”? Or how close I was to pooping myself one time in Science class, or when I took a baseball to the face in Gym and almost passed out. I have had enough embarrassing moments in my childhood to keep me up at night, it would not have been fun if it was posted for the world to see.

Well, If you are a parent to a young teen or child today – you’ve probably caught them with their friends dancing to some viral trend on TikTok, or posing for Instagram. Most of these social media apps and websites make it easy for anybody to watch, create, and share videos, pictures, or posts in a few taps of your phone. Now, it’s cool to see what your friends are up to and can be hilarious watching people fall down – but, if you’re anything like me, you’re just trying to keep up to ensure their most embarrassing moments stay offline. This is why it’s important to talk to your kids, follow best practices, monitor their social media usage, promote safety, understand what’s going on out there, and learn what it takes to protect them online. Keep reading to see a step-by-step guide on how to set up parental controls on the most popular social media sites. 

What Are The Most Popular Social Media Websites?

According to Statista the list looks like this.

1. Facebook
2. Instagram
3. Facebook Messenger
4. X
5. Pinterest
6. Reddit
7. Snapchat
8. WhatsApp
9. Google Messenger
10. Tumblr

Parental controls are an important part of your child’s digital wellbeing. Now we’ll go through some of these most popular social media sites on this list that your child might have, and some others that aren’t on this list. 

Facebook

This social media giant has been on top for many years, and chances are it will remain there for a long, long time. As of the second quarter of 2021, there were approximately 2.89 billion active users on the site. That’s a lot of people, so you need to learn how to protect your kids because chances are there are many bad actors out there. Here’s how to set up parental controls for Facebook.

Privacy Checkup

1. From the main page, tap the three horizontal lines, scroll down and tap “Settings & Privacy”
2. Tap “Privacy shortcuts” and then “Review a few important privacy settings”
3. From here, you can control who has access to view your child’s posts, who can find their account, how to safeguard their data and settings, and more

Restrict Screen Time

1. From the main page, tap the three horizontal lines, scroll down and tap “Settings & Privacy”
2. Tap “Your time on Facebook”, and under the header “Manage your time” select “See Tools”
3. From here you can schedule or enable Quiet time, which mutes notifications, or set a daily time reminder to remind you that you’ve been on Facebook past a certain time limit

Block Someone

1. Search for the person you’re wanting to block, then hit the three dots next to the “Message” button.
2. Select “Block” 

Instagram

Instagram has absolutely skyrocketed in popularity since its inception in 2010. It was then bought by Facebook a couple of years later in 2012 and has since been one of Facebook’s most popular offerings. Here’s how to enable some parental controls for Instagram.

Turn Account Private

1. Tap the three horizontal lines
2. Tap “Settings” then “Privacy”
3. Tap “Account privacy” and turn it on

Allow commenting

1. Go to your profile and tap the three horizontal lines
2. Tap “Settings”, then “Privacy” and “Comments”
3. Next, tap the arrow and select your options

Block commenting

1. Go to your profile and tap the three horizontal lines
2. Tap “Settings”, then “Privacy” and “Comments”
3. Now select the arrow next to “Block Comments from” and choose what person you’d like to block comments from

Filter comments

1. Go to your profile and tap the three horizontal lines
2. Tap “Settings”, then “Privacy” and “Comments”
3. Under the “Filters” heading, select “Hide offensive comments”
4. or you can select “Manual filter” to choose specific words or phrases that you’d like to block

Stop showing posts from someone

1. Search for the person you’d like to mute
2. Tap “Following” and then tap “Mute”

Choose close friends

1. Go to your profile and tap the three horizontal lines
2. Select “Close Friends”
3. Choose “Get Started”
4. Now select all the people you want to add to your close friends group

Report profiles or posts

1. Tap the three dots on the top of the person’s profile or post
2. Tap “Report” and select a reason

Hide likes

1. Go to your profile and tap the three horizontal lines
2. Tap “Settings” then “Notifications” then “Posts, Stories and Comments”
3. Now select only “From People I Follow”, or “Off” 

Facebook Messenger Kids

Parent Dashboard

Messenger Kids has a page where you can control, monitor, limit and modify settings for your child’s account. Here’s how you access it

1. Log in to your Facebook account
2. From the “Home” menu, select the “Messenger Kids” option from the left menu.
3. Select your child’s name under the “Accounts you manage” section

Adding/removing contacts

1. From the Parent Dashboard, select “Contacts”
2. Select Add Contacts and search for people you’d like to add
3. To remove a contact, select the three dots on the right side of the contact, and select “Remove [name] as a contact.”

Manage who and how people can friend them

1. In the Parent Dashboard navigate to “Friending”
2. Select either “My child can choose contacts” or “Only I can choose contacts”

Change child’s personal information

1. Log in to your Facebook account
2. From the “Home” menu, select the “Messenger Kids” option from the left menu.
3. Select your child’s name under the “Accounts you manage” section
4. Select “Controls”, then “Account Details”
5. Edit your child’s information including birthday, gender, and name

Restricting screen time

1. Log in to your Facebook account
2. From the “Home” menu, select the “Messenger Kids” option from the left menu.
3. Select “Controls” and then “Sleep Mode”
4. Turn the toggle on, and select either “During the Week” or “On Weekends” and choose the times you’d like
5. Hit “Save”

Download all their data

1. Log in to your Facebook with a computer
2. From the “Home” menu, select the “Messenger Kids” option from the left menu.
3. Select your child’s name under the “Accounts you manage” section
4. Select “Controls”, then “Download [Name]’s Information.”
5. Select “Create File”
6. Now you’ll receive a notification when the data is ready to download

Remove images

1. From your child’s account, go to the “Activity” feed section
2. Select the image you’d like to remove
3. Select”Remove”

X (Twitter)

Another social media giant, X (Twitter), has been on the rise since its inception in 2006. Boasting 6.45 million or so active users in Canada alone, it’s safe to say you’ve come across it before. Here’s how to protect your kids and set up parental controls for X.

Restrict who sees Tweets

1. Login to your child’s X account
2. Select their profile, then select “Settings and Privacy”
3. Select “Privacy and safety”
4. Under the “Tweets” section, select “Protect your tweets”
5. This will allow only followers and people you approve to see their Tweets

Restrict photo tagging

1. Login to your child’s X account
2. Select their profile, then select “Settings and Privacy”
3. Select “Privacy and safety”
4. Select “Photo tagging”
5. Choose either “Only people you follow can tag you”, or “Off”

Restrict messaging

1. Login to your child’s X account
2. Select their profile, then select “Settings and Privacy”
3. Select “Privacy and safety”
4. Select “Direct Messages”
5. Uncheck “Receive message requests”

Restrict inappropriate content

1. Login to your child’s X account
2. Select their profile, then select “Settings and Privacy”
3. Select “Privacy and safety”
4. Find “Safety”
5. Uncheck “Display media that may contain sensitive content”

Reporting or blocking someone

1. Find the person you’d like to block or report
2. Tap the three buttons on the top of the page
3. Select “Report” or Block” and select a reason

Snapchat

Select who can contact them

1. From the app, tap your profile icon on the top-left
2. Tap “Settings”
3. Find “Who Can…”
4. Select “Contact Me”
5. Choose either “Everyone” or “My Friends”

Choose who can see their story

1. From the app, tap your profile icon on the top-left
2. Tap “Settings”
3. Find “Who Can…”
4. Select “View My Story”
5. Choose either “Everyone”, “My Friends” or “Custom” to select specific people

How to report someone

1. Select “Chat” from the bottom left-hand corner
2. Choose who you’d like to report
3. Hold down their name, tap “More”
4. Tap “Report” and select the reason

How to block someone

1. From the app, tap your profile icon on the top-left
2. Tap and hold the person’s name
3. Select “Block”

TikTok

Family Pairing

Family Paring is an option by TikTok to allow parents the ability to customize their child’s safety settings. These settings include setting a limit on screen time, restrict content they view, manage privacy settings and more. In order to set up these parental controls, you’ll need to link the parent and child’s account, first.

1. Go to “Me”
2. Tap the three dots at the top
3. Tap “Family Pairing” then continue through the prompts
4. Choose either Parent or Teen for the account type
5. After pairing, you can select the account you want to manage and update the settings

Restrict screen time

1. Go to “Me”
2. Tap the three dots at the top
3. Find “Digital Wellbeing” then select “Screen Time”
4. Select “Screen Time Management”
5. Now select a time limit and “Turn On”

Restrict inappropriate content

1. Go to “Me”
2. Tap the three dots at the top
3. Find “Digital Wellbeing” and select “Restricted Mode”
4. Now select “Turn on Restricted Mode”

Make their account private

1. Go to “Me”
2. Tap the three dots at the top
3. Select “Privacy”
4. Turn on “Private account”