WhatsApp introduces optional parental controls for teens amid safety concerns

WhatsApp on Wednesday, announced a new set of optional parental controls for teenagers, giving parents greater control over their teens’ privacy settings, group activity, Channels and Meta AI experience on the messaging platform. The company said the new controls are designed to help parents and teenagers decide together how they want to use WhatsApp, while keeping personal conversations protected. Under the new controls, parents will be able to select privacy settings for their teens, including who can view their profile photo and who can add them to groups.

If teenagers want to loosen any of these settings, they will require approval through a parent-set PIN. Parents will also receive notifications when their teen joins or leaves a group, or when the size of a group increases significantly. They will have additional options to determine how their teen uses Channels, including which Status updates the teen can view and who can view the teen’s own Status updates. WhatsApp has also introduced controls for the Meta AI experience available to teenagers.

Parents can choose between the default 13+ setting and a stricter “Limited Content” option, depending on the level of restrictions they want for their teen. The company said the controls are being introduced gradually and will be developed further based on feedback from families. WhatsApp said the aim is to encourage open conversations between parents and teenagers about responsible use of the platform without compromising the privacy of personal communications.

The parental controls are entirely optional, with parents able to decide the level of support their teen needs and change or disable the settings at any time. WhatsApp said that even when the controls are enabled, teens’ personal messages and calls will remain protected by end-to-end encryption. The company said no one outside a chat, including WhatsApp, can access or listen to users’ personal messages and calls. The announcement follows WhatsApp’s earlier efforts to introduce parental controls aimed at younger users. Earlier this year, the platform announced tools allowing parents and guardians to adjust communication settings and restrict certain features so that pre-teens could primarily use WhatsApp for messaging and calls.

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