My Role

Product strategy and design for youth regulatory compliance on Threads, translating legal requirements and shared approaches into product experiences tailored to Threads. Partnered with Legal, Product, Engineering, Content Design, and designers across Instagram, Facebook, and Central Youth. Represented Threads as the design lead in cross-app design forums.

What shipped

A series of compliant experiences across global regulations, including regulatory supervision, age-based restrictions, and warning labels. Adapted shared cross-Meta solutions to work within the Threads ecosystem while contributing to more scalable approaches across apps.

The impact

Kept Threads operational for teens across key markets while reducing regulatory risk. Shipped compliant experiences across multiple regions, avoiding millions in potential fines and enabling continued growth under increasing global regulations for youth.

Problems

• Threads launched without dedicated regulatory infrastructure for teens

• Rapidly evolving laws with fixed enforcement deadlines

• No existing playbook for applying regulations to a new platform with different architecture

• Risk of being forced to exit entire markets if non-compliant

• Work is often reactive, requiring new solutions for each regulation

Goals

• Keep Threads legally operational for teens across jurisdictions

• Ship compliant experiences by enforcement deadlines

• Adapt cross-platform solutions to work within Threads’s unique architecture

• Contribute to a scalable regulatory approach to reduce reactive work over time

Constraints

• Multiple jurisdictions with different requirements, timelines, and risk levels

• Limited existing infrastructure compared to Instagram and Facebook

• Partial dependence on shared systems that didn’t exist yet on Threads

• Needed consistency across Meta apps while remaining feasible for Threads

• Deadlines driven by legislation, not product timelines

Collaboration on regulatory approaches

• Acted as the design lead representative for Threads in cross-app design forums

• Partnered with PM and engineering leadership to represent Threads in broader regulatory discussions

• Ensured Threads constraints and needs were consistently reflected in decisions

• Partnered with Threads Legal and Policy on turning requirements into product decisions

Creating a regulatory framework

Alongside the individual regulation work, I partnered with Product Management to define a three-tier regulatory strategy that organized around 25 anticipated regulations into three tiers:

• Reusable infrastructure: invest in foundational capabilities, such as age assurance, supervision, and parental consent that satisfy multiple regulations at once rather than building one off solutions for each law

• Rapid response: for regulations with eminent deadlines, ship compliance experiences quickly by adapting central infrastructure or building lightweight Threads-specific solutions

• UX optimization: align with other product designers across family of apps to adjust existing solutions in Instagram that can scale to Threads

This gave the team a framework for a prioritizing rather than reacting to each new law. Instead of treating every regulation as equally urgent we could invest in infrastructure that knocked out multiple requirements at once while still hitting hard deadlines. We established a principle of simpler, right-sized solutions, reflecting lower regulatory pressure and different usage patterns compared to other Meta apps.

Scaling regulatory design through systems and AI

• Contributed Threads patterns and components to a shared “sticker sheet” of reusable regulatory UI

• Participated in a cross-app AI design sprint to structure regulatory knowledge into reusable inputs

• Helped enable an AI-assisted approach to recommending solutions for future regulations based on past patterns

Regulatory solutions

Regulatory theme:Age-based social media ban
Example: Australia under-16 ban

Designed a phased approach for the Australia U16 ban. Phase one shipped pre-ban notices and a blocking experience by the December 2025 deadline. Phase two introduced a more robust system including a standalone checkpoint, identity verification, and enforcement-day notifications. This approach enabled fast compliance while adapting the experience for Threads.

Regulatory theme: Warning labels
Example: Colorado

Defined a cross-app warning label strategy with Instagram, addressing interactions with existing time management controls and delivering build-ready designs ahead of the April 2026 deadline.

I leveraged AI to quickly map and stress-test interactions between warning labels, Sleep Mode, and Daily Limit. This made it easier to surface timing collisions and edge cases, and to iterate on system rules before moving into build.

Regulatory theme:Addictive scrolling
Example: Pivot to a new destination

Designed scroll breaks and topic pivots to reduce harmful consumption patterns for teens, partnering with Instagram, Facebook, and User Research to align on approach. Delivered build-ready designs, currently in development as of May 2026.

Regulatory theme: Regulatory supervision
Example: Texas

Adapted General Supervision approaches to provide a scaled-back version to address Texas law that required parental visibility and control.

• Australia: shipped phase one by the December 2025 enforcement deadline affecting around 70,000 users. Threads continued operating in Australia and successfully avoided potential fines of up to $32,000,000

• Colorado: delivered build-ready warning label designs ahead of the April 2026 deadline and established a pattern for future warning labels

• Upcoming regulation centered on scroll break: aligned on a Threads-specific scroll break approach, diverging from Instagram and Facebook due to limited pivot surfaces

• Texas: launched regulatory supervision, ensuring Threads’s ability to continue operating in Texas by giving parents required oversight of their teen’s account and successfully avoided up to $10,000 per violation