WhatsApp parental controls are expanding, with the messaging service rolling out a new suite of tools designed to limit the content teenagers can access. The company confirmed the update in a blog post, positioning the features as an alternative to broader age-verification requirements.
The new options allow parents to decide who can see an underage user’s profile photo and who may invite those users to new groups. Parents can also opt to receive notifications about significant group activity or changes. A comparable set of controls applies to WhatsApp channels, governing how teenagers use them, which status updates they can view and who can see their own status updates.
The controls are optional and, according to WhatsApp, straightforward to set up, requiring only a single parent-set PIN. They can be adjusted or switched off at any time. Protections also extend to Meta AI, the app’s built-in chatbot, which has a default setting for users aged 13 and over and a stricter, limited-content setting for younger children. Personal messages and calls will always remain private, even from parents.
Navigating age verification concerns
WhatsApp is attempting to meet rising demands for child protection while avoiding the costly and unpopular age-verification measures that privacy advocates have criticised. Widespread age-verification laws have already encountered difficulties in places such as Australia, where research indicates platforms are not requiring proof of age. While WhatsApp is introducing age verification for some features, it is not imposing a platform-wide lockdown.
Determining whether a user is underage typically requires collecting personal data from everyone on a platform. Current techniques often rely on uploaded images of driving licences and passports, alongside biometric face scans, which can end up held by multiple companies and government bodies. Users can also bypass such rules using VPN services. Discord recently trialled a lighter form of age verification using loosely defined criteria to assign presumed ages, but encountered bugs that sorted users into incorrect age groups, errors said to disproportionately affect minorities.
A different approach to online safety
These privacy vulnerabilities and software faults are said to echo the core flaws of the Kids Online Safety Act, a contested bill currently advancing through Congress. The legislation imposes various age-verification requirements on online platforms while attempting to define prohibited content, ranging from articles referencing alcohol to guides concerning sexual activity.
WhatsApp is pursuing a separate route, offering more robust parental controls as an option for concerned families. The approach could demonstrate that sweeping age-verification laws are not necessary to protect younger users. The parental controls operate across phones, routers and platforms, with the effectiveness of any given tool depending on the priorities of the household applying it.
